Falling From Grace
by dreamers4eva
Summary: She was one of Harry Potters best friends, Draco Malfoys adoptive sister and Sirius Blacks daughter but does she know what's good for her? And will she do the right thing when the time comes?
1. All The Right Friends

**Okay so this is an idea I have had in my head for ages but I never really thought it out properly until now. This is my first OC story and I know that the word OC puts off a lot of people but try to give it a chance so far i'm quite proud of it. I have already written a couple of chapters all I have to do is type it up and upload it so it shouldn't be too long before I update :-) If you have any questions just ask and I will try to answer as much as I can without giving away the story. Please let me know what you think, even if you think it's horrible! ;-) Oh and its rated T because there might be the odd swear word and at least hints of some darker stuff in later chapters when we get to Know Grace a bit better.**

**Disclaimer: I dont own any of the harry potter stuff J.K. Rowling does. But I do own Grace :-D**

**Chapter 1 – All the Right Friends** (yet none of them can remember my birthday)

Grace glanced around the platform casually, occasionally returning the greetings that came her way.

"Hey Grace."

"Grace! How was your summer?"

"What's up Seyer?"

She answered them all with the usual responses looking kind of bored but taking care to smile to all the right people; making all the right friends in all the right places just as she was taught.

Just as she finished a very polite conversation with Ms Zabini, a boy caught her eye. Obviously a first year like her, the scrawny bespectacled boy struggled to get his trunk onto the train on his own. He looked up and his black hair moved slightly to one side giving Grace a glimpse of a very funny shaped scar….

"Ace! Come on!"

Grace turned away from the boy to come face to face with her adoptive brother.

"I thought I told you _not_ to call me that."

"And I thought I told you that I'm going to call you whatever I like," he smirked, his blue eyes glinting with only the slightest hint of a challenge. "So you planning on joining us or continue staring off into space?"

Grace rolled her eyes but followed him onto the train anyway. They reached their compartment and Grace immediately took the empty window seat.

"DRACO! Look, I saved you a seat."

Draco cringed slightly looking at Pansy and then at the empty seat next to Grace. "But I promised I'd sit with Grace on the way there, didn't I Grace?" He looked at Grace who was desperately trying to hide her smirk. She looked back at him as innocently as she could manage.

"But Drake look, she saved you a seat," she smiled sweetly.

"But Ace-" he glared at her.

"Oh I don't mind, _really,_" she said with a pointed look at Pansy who was practically bouncing in her seat.

"Fine," he said through gritted teeth, seeing that he had no choice and throwing himself into the seat next to Pansy.

"Well hello there beautiful," said a voice smoothly. Grace looked up just as Blaise Zabini entered the compartment and realised just a second too late that the seat next to hers was only remaining available seat. Draco's eyes lit up maliciously as he realised the same thing.

"You know my mother seemed very impressed with you," he said sitting next to her. "Not exactly the easiest thing to do that, impress my mother."

"That so?" she muttered uninterestedly, staring out the window as they left the platform behind them.

"She likes you."

Grace didn't answer but continued to gaze out the window. They were leaving London now, the amount of houses becoming fewer as they travelled through the country but Grace wasn't looking at the scenery. The reflection of the compartment on the glass was just enough so she could make out Draco looking suspiciously in their direction while Pansy chatted animatedly to him. Apparently he couldn't hear what Blaise was saying over the noise the others were making.

"I like you too, when it comes to that."

Suddenly, Grace shot up out of her seat causing the rest of the occupants to stare at her.

"I'm going for a walk," she declared. "Alone," she added seeing Blaise's mouth open and with that she left, shutting the door behind her and picking a direction to walk in before anyone could call her back.

_Great_, she thought. _Now_ _I'm going to have to entertain myself for the rest of the trip. Or go back and face Zabini._ If she was honest with herself, Blaise was a good match for her. The Malfoys would certainly approve….._Nope, definitely going to have to entertain myself. _

As she moved slowly down the train she started looking for potential time-wasting opportunities. Everybody she passed, however, looked….well…dull or they looked at her with that expression that she knew only too well with those too eager, overly enthusiastic eyes that just _begged_ for some kind of restraining order. Grace knew that she was pretty. In fact she highly suspected that it was the reason so many people had wanted to adopt her before she went to live with the Malfoys-

BANG!

One of the doors on Grace's left opened suddenly and a boy came hurtling out. He crashed straight into her, sending them both flying.

"Ow," said Grace as she landed on the floor with a thud.

"Oh Merlin! I'm so sorry!" said the boy. He jumped to his feet and leant back down to help her up. Gingerly, she held out her hand and let him pick her up and set her back on her feet. "Are you hurt? I didn't mean to I swear, I didn't see you. I'm sorry-"

"It's okay. I'm fine really," she said interrupting him and holding up her hands in an effort to stop his steady flow of apologies. "See look, no broken bones or anything."

She looked at him properly then. He was quite a bit taller than she was, older too by the looks of him, with ginger hair and kind eyes that looked vaguely familiar. She watched as his expression went from worried to relaxed (as he realised that she was telling the truth) and then to one of recognition. _Here it comes_…she thought.

"Frederick Weasley, at your service," he said with a mock bow. Grace smiled slightly in surprise; he was actually giving her the chance to introduce herself. _That didn't happen very often._

"Grace Maria Blackseyer, pleased to meet you," she replied with a smile and a small fake courtesy of her own. "Wait, Weasley? You're not related to Arthur Weasley are you?"

His grin turned slightly sheepish. "Yeah, urm…I'm his son."

"Which would make Bill and Charlie your…"

"Older and maybe not so wiser brothers, yeah."

"Right," she said giggling. So _that_ was why he looked so familiar. "You have a very nice family," she said sincerely.

"Well you obviously haven't met my evil twin yet," he replied with a mischievous grin.

"Hey Fred! Did you get lost out there or something?" yelled a voice from inside the compartment he had come from.

"Let me guess…..evil twin?" Grace asked raising her eyebrows slightly. She shook out her long black hair with the pink streak in it. "I need to get back anyway. See you at school?"

"Until we meet again Miss Blackseyer," he said sweeping into another exaggerated bow and grinning at her. She smiled back and then began walking back to her own compartment.

She hadn't gotten far when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."

Grace quickened her pace, curious to see what was going on and entered the compartment just in time to see Goyle being bitten by a rat.

Fighting a laugh, Grace announced her presence. "Erm Draco? Is there a reason your friend is being attacked by a rat?"

Draco, though slightly startled by her sudden appearance, rounded on her quickly for support.

"It's theirs!" he said gesturing behind him. "They set it on us!"

Grace raised one eyebrow and took in the rest of the compartment. The boy she saw on the platform was there along with another boy that she didn't know. She sighed quietly.

"Can we not do this so early in the year? Please Drake?" She looked at him with her big eyes until he nodded slightly. The boy from the platform watched their little exchange with a frown on his face, confusion evident in his green eyes.

"Come on Crabbe, Goyle, let's go. You were lucky this time Potter! You coming Ace?...Ace?"

"Yeah I'll be there in a minute." They left while Grace stood looking at the dark haired boy. She opened her mouth to say something but the other boy cut her off.

"Hey I know you! Your Maria Seyer. You sang at the Ministry's Christmas party last year and in Diagon Alley over the summer for the festival. Can I have your autograph? I think I've listened to every song you have ever sung. Is it true you write all your own songs? Aren't you the same age as us? I was listening to the Wireless the other and day and they were talking about…" he trailed off into faint murmurs having finally realised that he was rambling.

Reminding herself that this is exactly what she had expected, Grace mentally shook herself and quickly regained her composure.

"Erm sure you can have an autograph," she said summoning a quill and some parchment. "What's your name?" she said kindly, slipping quickly into her professional mode.

"Ron Weasley," he muttered to the floor, his ears turning scarlet.

"Weasley? Another one? Jeez, how many of you are there?" She hadn't meant to say anything, it had just sort of slipped out but at her words Ron's face went from pink to crimson.

"Seven, including me," he mumbled.

Grace looked over to the other boy.

"And I'm guessing your not one of 'em."

"Erm, no," he said looking nervous. "I'm Harry Potter."

"Hi, I'm Grace Blackseyer."

She finished the autograph and handed it over to Ron. "Anyways, I should be going," she said getting up and heading for the door. "Oh and don't worry about Draco, he's harmless enough….well mostly." She grinned evilly and left.

Waiting in the chamber to be sorted was, if possible, worse than sitting with Pansy on the train. She wore a bored, slightly haughty, expression; partly because she _was_ bored but mostly because she didn't want to look like all the other terrified little first years. Even though she knew what was coming, having watched a sorting ceremony before, she was anxious for it to begin. The Malfoys would want her to be in Slytherin; that's the house that they had been in and the house that Draco wanted to be in but she wasn't sure.

McGonagall came to get then before Grace had much time to consider where she _would_ like to be placed and too soon it was her turn to be sorted.

Taking a subtle breath to steady her nerves, Grace walked straight up to the front of the hall confidently without an ounce of those nerves showing on her face. She even winked at a few of the people she knew on the way.

She was still smiling as she sat on the stool and the sorting hat was placed on her head but the smile froze as the hat started to talk to her.

"Hmmm. You're very like your parents aren't you?" Thinking that the hat meant the Malfoys, Grace was about to argue but before she could even begin the thought, the hat had announced the chosen house to the rest of the hall.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Surprised, but pleased, Grace jumped down from the stool and set off for the cheering table, glancing up at the teacher's table as she did. Nearly all of the teachers had been leaning forward slightly in anticipation of what house she would be put into. She tried very hard not to let that bother her as she took her seat across from what looked suspiciously like another Weasley.

**So there you are first chapter, I cant promise there all going to be as long as this it depends how it goes really. I'm going to stick mostly to the story but the first two years are mainly going to just be putting Grace into the story and letting you get to know her first so I wont spend too long on them hopefully but anyway tell me what you think about it so far.**


	2. Welcome to Gryffindor

**Heres chapter 2. i'm not as proud of this chapter as I was with the first chapter but anyways... let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: i dont own Harry Potter but i do own Grace.**

**Chapter 2 – Welcome to Gryffindor **(only the stupid and insane need apply)

It was about a week after the sorting and Draco had still not spoken a single word to Grace. His parents, on the other hand, had sent a very long, very strongly worded letter telling her how disappointed they were and how they sincerely hoped she would try harder. She didn't really care what Lucius and Narcissa thought, but Draco was different. She kind of felt that in many ways, the two of them were in the same boat and it would make life so much easier at the Malfoys' if he was still on her side.

So Grace tried to talk to him like a reasonable person (this wasn't _her_ fault after all) but he refused to be in same room as her for a very long unless he had to. So instead she tried to send him a letter (maybe he needed help understanding that this wasn't her fault) only to watch him rip the letter into pieces as soon as he realised it was from him. So she resorted to trying to corner him before lessons, during lessons and after (persistence was key, he had to listen to eventually) but that didn't work either. Finally she had had enough.

One morning at breakfast, she marched over to the Slytherin table, plonked herself down next to Draco and helped herself to some toast. Most of the surrounding students stared at her but despite the fact that Draco had not spoken to her and Snape (head of Slytherin house) had not missed the opportunity to give her a detention on the first day, the Slytherins maintained a healthy respect for Grace. Whether it was because she had been adopted by the Malfoys or maybe because she had a very high blood status even without them; nobody contested her seating choice. Nobody except Draco of course.

"Erm, Grace? I think you got the wrong table. Muggle-lovers sit over there," Draco said gesturing to the table furthest from them.

"Draco, does it really matter to you that much which house I was put into? It wasn't exactly like I had any choice in the matter, was it? And even if I had it would still have absolutely nothing to do with you so do you think that you could stop acting like a two year old and get yourself out of this immature, childish tantrum?"

After that, a strange kind of truce appeared between the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins. Draco and his friends did not torment Harry and his friends while Grace was around (or they at least kept it to a minimum) while the Gryffindors tried not to speak badly of her Slytherin friends when Grace could hear.

Despite some very shaky starts, Grace had become fast friends with the Gryffindors, especially Harry, Ron and Hermione. She had been the one in the bathroom trying to consol Hermione right before they got attacked by a troll and she was also there sneaking Norbert the dragon out of the country. Grace cared about her new friends very much and it was for this reason that she found herself in the forbidden third floor corridor late one night trying desperately to save the Philosopher's Stone.

"If you want to go back, I won't blame you," Harry said. You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

"Don't be stupid."

"We're coming."

Grace pushed open the door and the three giant heads turned in their direction.

"What's that by its' feet?" whispered Hermione.

"It's a harp. It must wake up as soon as the music stops playing," Grace said.

"Snape probably left it," said Ron.

"Well, here goes…" said Harry pulling the flute out of his pocket and starting to play.

"Keep playing," warned Ron as they crept as quietly as they could toward the trapdoor by its feet. "We should be able to pull it open. Wanna go first Grace?"

"Are you joking?"

"Hermione?"

"No I don't!"

Harry pointed to himself.

"You want to go first?" asked Ron.

"There doesn't seem to be any way to climb down, you'll just have to drop," said Grace eyeing the hole doubtfully.

"Okay," said Ron. "Give the flute to Grace so she can keep playing."

Harry handed the flute over to Grace who quickly started up a tune from one of her songs, while Harry lowered himself into the hole warning Ron not to follow if anything happened to him. He dropped and Grace had to force herself to keep playing.

"It's okay!" Harry's voice called up. Grace sighed inwardly in relief and nodded to Ron as he jumped in after Harry. She could just about hear their muffled voices as she gestured to Hermione to go and then quickly jumped in herself.

"We must be miles under the school," she heard Hermione say.

"Lucky this plant things here really," said Ron.

"Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. The boys stared at her in confusion but Grace had just seen what had scared Hermione. "Oh crap," she muttered.

"Look at both of you!" Grace grabbed Hermione's hand and struggled with her towards the wall. Both the boys had already been caught tightly around the legs by the plant that had broken their fall.

"Stop moving! I know what this is- it's Devil's Snare!"

"Oh I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," said Ron sarcastically, struggling more than ever.

"Shut up! I'm trying to remember how to kill it."

"Hurry up!" gasped Harry.

Grace looked at Hermione. She remembered the lesson that they had studied Devil's Snare but she had been much more interested in the notes that her and Ron had been passing back and forth about the upcoming Quidditch match than anything Sprout had said.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare," Hermione was muttering to herself. "What did Professor Sprout say...it likes the dark and damp…"

"Great! So let's light a fire!" said Grace.

"But there's no wood…"

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Here-" Grace moved forward slightly and muttered the spell to send blue flames at the plant which slipped off the boys and retreated away from the light.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology Hermione," said Grace.

"Yeah and lucky Grace doesn't lose her head in a crisis. 'There's no wood,' _honestly_," said Ron.

"Come on, this way," said Harry leading them down the only passageway. They were all silent as they walked; the only sound being their footsteps and the dripping of water from the walls. Soon they reached a chamber full of small, shiny birds and, after establishing that they were not going to attack them, tried and failed to open the door.

"Now what?" asked Ron, as they all looked around for some clue as to how to open the door.

"These birds can't just be here for decoration," said Hermione thoughtfully.

"They're not birds! They're _keys_, look! One of them must open the door," said Harry. They spotted the broomsticks.

"But there are _hundreds_ of them," said Grace. "We don't exactly have time for a process of elimination."

Ron turned back to the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one – probably silver like the handle."

"I see it!" exclaimed Harry.

Grace turned incredulously to him. "Really?" Harry nodded not taking his eyes off the key. "Okay, then," Grace said, trying to keep the scepticism out of her voice and reaching out to grab one of the broomsticks. "Think you can catch it, Seeker- boy?" She offered him the broom and he took it automatically.

"Be ready to catch it and get that door open," he said taking flight.

"Yes sir," muttered Grace before Ron shushed her.

They all watched with baited breath while Harry ducked between the keys, which had begun to dart around very fast as soon as Harry had begun his pursuit.

"GOT IT!" he yelled, throwing the key to them. Ron caught it and shoved it through the keyhole.

"Come on Ron, _quickly_," said Grace looking at Harry who was being chased by the rest of the keys. Then they were through, shortly followed a few seconds later by Harry still on his broom, and they slammed the door shut behind them.

They looked at the room they had entered, saw the massive statues and the door half-hidden behind them. "Think they'll just let us through?" said Grace hopefully. They walked forwards and the statues sprang to life, blocking their path. "Of course not," sighed Grace.

"It's chess!" said Ron, looking around the room.

"It's what?" said Grace; sure she must have misheard him.

"Chess. I bet we have to play our way across," explained Ron.

"What the hell kind of warped sense of humour has Dumbledore got?" grumbled Grace, but she took her place dutifully and followed Ron's orders. She had to admit, Ron played very well and soon he was muttering to himself.

"We're nearly there. Let me think."

The others were quiet while he thought for a minute and then he said:

"Yes, it's the only way. I have to be taken."

"NO!" shouted the other three.

"I have to. Then you can checkmate the king Harry."

"There has to be another way-"

"No Harry, there's not. You have got to stop Snape."

And off he went. Hermione screamed when the Queen knocked him off his perch on the horse. Grace flinched and looked away while Harry did what he had been told and ended the game. They ran over to Ron.

"He's okay," said Grace shakily. "Just knocked out, he'll have a nasty headache when he wakes up but I _think_ that's all."

They felt awful for leaving him but there wasn't much they could do for him now and they continued onto the next task.

"Brilliant," said Hermione.

"I don't know about you," said Grace looking at Harry. "But 'brilliant' isn't the word I would use to-"

"No _look_. This isn't magic – its logic – a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"I'm still not seeing how the word 'brilliant' applies."

"Ssshh!" snapped Hermione.

Grace bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything else as Hermione talked her way through the riddle. They watched anxiously as Hermione figured it out until finally she could identify all the bottles. Grace threw a sideways glance at Harry.

"There's not enough in there for all three of us," she said pointing to the bottle that would take them on to the next room.

"Well I'll go. You two go back, get Ron and get a message to Dumbledore as fast as you can," said Harry but before he had even finished the girls had already started arguing.

"WHAT?"

"Harry, no-"

"Listen you need to go get Dumbledore. We need him. I'll do what I can to hold him off."

"Okay, Hermione you go do that while I go with Harry."

"Grace-"

"Harry, there is absolutely zero chance of me letting you go through that door alone. So suck it up alright?" She was staring at him so defiantly, the hint of a threat barely concealed in her voice, that Harry gave up.

"Fine," he sighed. "Hermione, you go first."

They watched her drink the potion and disappear back the way they had come.

"Well, here goes nothing," said Harry taking a mouthful of the potion.

"Bottoms up," Grace agreed before drinking the rest. Taking a deep breath each, they walked together through the door and into the next room.

**Dont forget to review! :-D**


	3. What's With All The Flowers?

**Chapter 3! This chapter was quite easy to write so it didnt take to long and I'm already about half way through the next chapter too :-) I know that this chapter isn't as long as the other two but there was really nothing else i could add to it but i hope you enjoy it anyway.**

**Chapter 3 – "What's with all the flowers?"**

"Erm Harry?" said Grace quietly. "That's not Snape."

"Snape?" said Quirrell. "Ah yes, he does seem the type doesn't he? Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-st-stuttering Quirrell?"

Grace glanced at Harry who looked just as shocked as she felt.

"But Snape tried to kill me!"

Grace looked from Harry to Quirrell and then around the room, searching frantically for an escape route. _Come on_, she thought while they were talking about how Snape was the innocent one in all of this, _anything Grace; just think of something! _

But she couldn't there was no way out. She saw the mirror and wondered, briefly, why it was there because as far as she could tell that was the only thing in the room. It was a dead-end. And they were going to pay for thinking that they could do this.

Suddenly ropes appeared out of thin air, binding her, choking her. She struggled but couldn't break free and her vision was becoming cloudier by the minute.

"GRACE!" yelled Harry. She could hear him, but she couldn't quite gather enough strength to answer.

"Tell me where the Stone is boy!" said a sharp, cold voice that she didn't recognise.

"GRACE! Let her go! _Grace_!"

She felt herself falling more than she saw it. She felt every step on the way down and she knew that it should hurt but somehow, it didn't. The last thing she saw was the bottom of the mirror turned on its' side and then everything went black…..

She could hear voices, quiet at first but getting steadily louder.

"How long before they wake up?"

"I don't know. Madam Promfrey said Grace should be waking up soon…"

Grace tried to move, to let them know that she was fine but her whole body felt heavy and she found that it was much easier to just continue lying there.

"She's been pretty out of it for a while now though."

"I know."

The voices sounded worried and Grace tried again to open her eyes. It felt like they were glued shut.

"And what about Harry?"

That did it. She stirred suddenly, her eyes opened and the room swayed.

"I'll go get Madam Promfrey." Footsteps hurried away while Grace was still attempting to make sense of the room. Finally, someone's face came into focus. It was Ron. There seemed to be a lot of colours behind his head.

"Hey Grace, how you feeling?"

"Harry," she managed to mumble. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah Grace. He's going to be fine. He's right here."

She turned her head to face the bed next to hers and saw him. Someone had taken his glasses off and he was lying down. He looked peaceful; like he was asleep.

"Good morning Miss Blackseyer!" Hermione had returned with Madam Promfrey. "How are you feeling?" She began bustling around Grace, pulling her up gently but firmly into a sitting position while she conjured another pillow so that she could lean back but still be upright.

"I've been better," Grace muttered. She was happy to hear that her voice didn't sound as groggy as before. Now that she was sitting, she realised that the mass of shapeless colours she had seen before were flowers. Lots of them.

"Well drink this," said Madam Promfrey handing Grace a potion that was a nasty shade of green. "Don't worry, you should be back on your feet in no time."

"I'm not drinking that."

"You will if you want to leave this room before the end of the year," replied Madam Promfrey as she returned to her office after checking on Harry.

Grace sighed and then, holding her nose, drained the cup in one huge gulp.

"Eurgh! That stuff is foul," she said placing the empty cup on the side. She looked up. Both Ron and Hermione were watching her warily as if they expected her to pass out again any second.

"I'm fine people," she said. "What's with all the flowers?"

"Apparently you have a lot of ….erm….fans," said Hermione.

Grace looked between them as they exchanged a glance.

"What am I missing?"

"We hope you don't mind…" Hermione began.

"But it got kind of boring waiting for you two to wake up."

"We read some of your get well cards," said Hermione looking embarrassed.

"So?"

"_So_ these people are _freaks_ Grace," said Ron bluntly, "I mean that one over there sent you a lock of his _hair_. Tell me that's normal."

Grace laughed. "Yeah okay, I see your point." She looked around and then she caught sight of Harry again. Her smile faded.

"He's going to be okay, right?"

"Madam Promfrey said so," said Hermione looking over at Harry too.

"What happened back there?"

"Dunno the whole story," said Ron. "The entire school's talking about it though."

"As far as we know, Harry stopped You-Know-Who from getting the Stone….but we don't know how."

"We were hoping that you could tell us."

Both of them were looking hopefully at her but Grace shook her head slowly.

"I don't remember."

"Nothing?" said Ron, clearly disappointed.

"Nope."

Madam Promfrey's door opened suddenly making them all jump. After a few more spells to check everything was fine and another mouthful of that awful potion, Grace was free to go. She felt bad for leaving Harry there alone, but staying in the Hospital Wing was already driving her insane.

She went for a walk alone, trying to gather her thoughts about the night before when someone shouted her.

"Oi! Blackseyer!"

Grace turned and saw Blaise running up to her. For a second, she considered running away in the opposite direction but decided against it.

"What can I do for you Blaise?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright – I heard what happened."

She stared at him, trying to detect any of the usual cockiness and swagger that he usually delivered all of his lines with but she couldn't. He seemed…well…._sincere_.

"I'm fine," she replied.

"Good. Glad to hear it. Listen…erm….what are your plans for this summer?"

"Oh….er…I got a few shows lined up and the usual social events." She smiled slightly, knowing that the Malfoys and Mrs Zabini moved in moved in all the same circles and would be going to all the same social gatherings and parties.

"Well…maybe we could go to a few, you know, together?"

She hesitated for a second.

"Sure Blaise. Sounds like fun."

Looking very happy with himself (if a little surprised), he said goodbye and left quickly as though hoping he could get away before she changed her mind. _Well_, she thought to herself, _the Malfoys would be pissed enough this summer with her getting into Gryffindor and helping to stop Voldemort all in one year, might as well give them something to be semi-pleased about. _

**So there we are, we are at the end of the first book which makes me very happy because i cant wait to get to book 3 as its one of my favourites but please tell me what you thought of it so far :-D**


	4. Manipulation

**To make up for the last chapter, this one is a bit longer than the others. Thankyou for the reviews and story alerts! It really does make me happy so keep them up :-)**

**This chapter takes place at the start of the second book just in case you wanted to know but about half way through it should be pretty obvious whereabouts we are up to. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I dont own the harry potter series but i do own any of the stuff that you dont recognise.**

**Chapter 4 – Manipulation **(sometimes it's the best way to get what you want and sometimes it's not)

"Where is that girl?" Moody muttered. "I knew I should have escorted her here myself. I _knew_ it." Then he heard the sound of a door banging from around the corner and light, running footsteps getting closer.

Grace hurtled around the corner.

"I'm here! I'm here!" she yelled as she came to an abrupt stop right in front of Alastor Moody.

"You are late."

"I know, I'm sorry," she panted, trying to catch her breath and re-straighten her long black hair (the streak in her hair had been dyed purple for the occasion). "But I'm here now and that's what counts right?"

Moody rolled his eyes at her.

"Why are we doing it in the Fudge's office?"

"They obviously don't think you took the last one seriously enough," Moody answered. "You've been upgraded. Are you happy now?"

"Well I don't see why I have to be here at all anyhow," she complained. "All I did was use magic. I'm a witch for crying out loud, what did they expect?"

"You used it in the vicinity of a muggle."

"Yeah I know. I said I was sorry about that I swear I didn't know he was there and you're not telling me that I wouldn't be in more trouble if I had used a spell to check."

"You could have looked."

"I did! Apparently that method isn't completely fool-proof," snapped Grace as the door opened in front of them and Arthur Weasley stepped out.

"Oh good you're here Grace. Are you ready to come in?"

"Yeah, sure Mr Weasley."

"Remember to be polite," said Moody gruffly.

"Yeah, yeah," said Grace.

"_Polite_, Grace," he repeated. She waved to show that she had heard him as she entered the room.

As she stepped in, she looked around the spacious office. Fudge was there along with Madam Bones and a few other people that she didn't recognise. Mr Weasley and Moody followed her in. She sat in the empty chair in front of Fudge's desk, across from the Minister himself.

"Ah Grace, we were beginning to think you weren't coming," said Fudge. "Can you please state for the record that your full name is in fact Grace Maria Blackseyer?"

"It is."

"And you live at the Malfoy Manor with your current guardians Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"And you have lived there for the last two years. Is that correct?"

"Yep."

"And in that time, this the….third time you have been in front of us?" Fudge said checking his notes. He looked up disapprovingly at Grace who did her best to keep her face as innocent as possible. "Okay Grace, what is your excuse this time?"

"I was practising transfiguration."

"Grace, you turned the man's car into a toy hippopotamus."

"In my defence I was going for a real hippo," replied Grace.

"The man saw you do it," said Fudge. "It doesn't matter what your intentions were."

"Like I said before, I didn't know he was there."

"You were unaware of the mans' presence?" asked Madam Bones, adding to her notes.

Grace nodded.

"Why did you use the car?" Madam Bones said curiously.

"I needed a large subject for the spell," shrugged Grace as though the answer was obvious.

"Grace," sighed the Minister. "This is the _third time_. You cannot do this anymore. While we admire your…..enthusiasm for learning, our laws are in place for a reason. If you continue to do this we will have to take your wand away."

Fudge looked unhappy about this and Grace knew why. He had been there for the other two Disciplinary Hearings and he had faced the same dilemma both times. If he ordered the snapping of her wand the backlash from the public would be huge because of the combination of her high profile and young age. It would be the Ministry's fault for failing her. However, if he did not issue a punishment after she broke the rules, it would send out the wrong message to people. She could see his mind working furiously and bit back a smile. She decided it was time to put him out of his misery.

"Why don't you putt me on probation?"

Fudge stared at her. "Probation?"

"Yeah probation," explained Grace. "As in a period of time were I will be on my best behaviour and if I break any more of your rules, I will have to face some serious consequences."

Fudge looked suspicious.

"Which brings me to my next subject," continued Grace when Fudge didn't reply. She could practically hear the jaws hit the floor around her. It didn't really matter to her what the others thought, it was Fudge that she had to convince.

"And what is your next subject?" he asked almost nervously.

"I want to live on my own."

The silence that followed was tense. It stretched on. Usually Grace would be dying to break it somehow but she knew that now was not the time. She needed to keep her mouth shut and let Fudge get used to the idea before she argued her point. Finally, Fudge spoke.

"You…er…want to…"

"Live on my own, yes."

"Erm…can I ask why?"

"Well the arrangement with the Malfoys clearly isn't working because like you said I have been here in front of you three times now. I think it would be best if I lived on my own, you know, learning the meaning of responsibility and all that. It's not like I can't look after myself, essentially I have been doing exactly that for a long time now. I'm also financially capable of not only buying my own house but hiring help too. Frankly, I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to live on my own."

"Because you are _twelve_," said Fudge looking at her in disbelief.

"Yes," she said brightly. "And that's why I need your permission."

"My permission?" he said faintly.

"If you said it was okay, nobody would be able to argue with it," Grace smiled sweetly.

Fudge thought about it for a moment, looking as though words had failed him. Then he spoke.

"What would this probation entail exactly?"

Grace smiled again. She knew that Fudge would not pass up the opportunity to make her toe the line. Twenty minutes later, a contract had been drafting signed by Grace, Fudge and ten other witnesses stating that as long as Grace behaved herself in school (as determined by Dumbledore) and out (determined by Fudge), she would be able to live alone (with hired help).

"We will meet again in exactly a year's time to review the matter and Grace, as long as you have met _all_ standards outlined in the contract, you can then be allowed to live in on your own."

"No problem Minister." Grace got up to leave with Moody and Mr Weasley right on her heels. As soon as the door had shut behind them, Moody rounded on her.

"_Grace_! What was that?"

"What was what?" she said.

"Did you get yourself a Disciplinary Hearing _on purpose_?" he hissed.

"Now Moody what would make you think that?"

"Grace, this is serious. If it gets out that you did, you will be in real trouble," said Mr Weasley looking worried.

"And it did go awfully well in there for you, don't you think?" said Moody ironically.

"What can I say? I'm a lucky person." Grace saw that they were both still staring at her and rushed on. "I can go to my grave swearing that I did no such thing if that makes you feel any better. I don't know why you are getting so worked up about it, it all worked out well didn't it? Now who wants to come house shopping with me?"

Grace strolled through Diagon Alley slowly with Blaise by her side. When they were alone together like this he wasn't the over-confident idiot he was when everyone else was around and she liked him much better.

"Not that I don't like having you around Grace, but do you intend on going home anytime before, you know, Christmas?"

Grace sighed. She hadn't told anyone about what had happened at the hearing (she hadn't wanted to get her hopes up too much) but she had had a feeling that with the amount of time Lucius Malfoy spent at the ministry, he had probably already found out or he would soon. Either way, Grace thought it best to steer clear of him altogether so she had practically moved in with Blaise for the rest of the summer.

"I can go if you want Blaise," she shrugged and took a step away from him before he grabbed her and pulled back to his side.

"Oh no you don't," he said playfully. She giggled and went back to holding his hand and walking next to him; with her free hand she played with her necklace. "Seriously though Grace, has it really gotten that bad at the Manor?"

"Hey, I just want to spend more time with my boyfriend, is that okay with you?" Grace replied, looking at him with a slight smirk on her face. At the word "boyfriend", his expression changed from curious to pleased in an instant. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that it shouldn't be this easy to lie to her boyfriend but she pushed the thought away.

"So I told my mother I would meet her outside Gringotts, do you want to come or….?" Blaise said.

"No, I have a few things to buy actually so I will see you in a bit?" replied Grace, excusing herself as kindly as possible. She didn't want to hurt his feelings but after spending the last two weeks living with him, she definitely needed some alone time.

"Okay babe, see you later," he said kissing her on the cheek and setting off up the street.

Grace set off in the opposite direction. She looked in a few of the shops as she went along and bumped into a few familiar faces. She saw Neville Longbottom with his grandmother, the Patil twins and even caught a glimpse of Pansy Parkinson walking out of Madam Malkins'. Walking past Quality Quidditch Supplies, Grace saw Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain and she stood talking to him for a while. Grace liked him, when he wasn't obsessing over something Quidditch- related, he was actually a really nice person.

Finally she decided that the Zabini's must have finished in Gringotts by now and started to head back down the street towards the bank when something stopped her suddenly.

There, just across the street, was Lucius Malfoy standing just inside Flourish & Blotts and he did _not_ look happy. _Fantastic, _she thought. _Of all the rotten luck_. Just as she started to back away hastily, she saw who he was talking to. She hesitated for just a second and then rushed towards the shop, knowing that she was about to regret it.

"What's the use of being a disgrace to the name wizard, if they don't even pay you well for it?" Malfoy hissed as Grace entered the shop behind him.

"Uncle Lucius! Fancy seeing you here" she said brightly and smiling sarcastically.

Malfoy spun round to face her. "Why, Grace! What a surprise."

"I think you should back off now," warned Grace, lowering her voice.

"_You_ do give _me_ orders," he snarled back. He towered over her threateningly, all thoughts of antagonising the Weasleys apparently forgotten.

Grace stared back defiantly. "Wouldn't want to make a scene now, would we?"

For a moment, Grace thought that she had misjudged the situation because Malfoy looked like he had every intention of making a scene. He glared at her furiously, hatred and anger practically radiating off him in waves. She saw his hand twitch slightly like it was dying to strike her down in the middle of Flourish & Blotts. Then he stepped back.

"Come Draco, we should go," he said, moving towards the door. He stopped as he got there and turned back to her now standing in front of the Weasleys and Harry.

"We will see you at home tonight, Grace."

Grace saw Draco looking sadly at her as he went to leave with his father.

Sitting on the train with the Slytherins on the way to Hogwarts was hard. She had wanted to sit with Harry, Ron and Hermione but she hadn't argued with Draco as he led her into the compartment and into the seat beside him. He had been trying to get her to talk to him since the night she had returned to the Manor but she hadn't said a word. She stared blindly out of the window as the memory flooded back.

Knowing that it would be pointless to try to runaway or avoid the Malfoys at all, Grace had gone back to the Manor straight from Diagon Alley. She had thought it would be best to just get it over with but as she saw the look on Lucius' face, she wished she had delayed the moment for a bit longer. If she thought that he had looked angry before, it was nothing to the pure rage that showed on his face now.

"I will not be humiliated in public again," he had vowed as he shut the door behind her.

She hadn't been able to walk for days afterwards.

"Grace?" Draco said tentatively bringing her from her thoughts. She ignored him. She knew she was being unfair, she knew it wasn't his fault or that there was nothing he could have done but she also knew that he had known what was going on and the idea that he had done _nothing_ was too much for her.

Blaise was sitting opposite her. Unlike Draco, he hadn't persistently talked to her in the hopes of getting her to speak. Instead he had taken to staring at her, constantly trying to make eye contact with her. She had ignored him too, carefully avoiding looking at either of them.

Grace heard the door slide open. "Grace?" Unable to help herself, she looked up at the sound of the new voice.

Hermione was standing in the doorway and Grace looked at her confused. Hermione had never come over to the Slytherins ever. What could she possibly want? The Slytherins all looked dumbfounded too.

"Grace, have you seen Harry and Ron?"

Perplexed, Grace shook her head and found her voice. "Aren't they with you?"

"No," Hermione looked upset. "I have looked all over the train. Fred and George told me that they hadn't seen either of them since they got onto the platform."

"But where else could they be?"

**Tell me what you think ;-)**


	5. Boys Will be Boys

**So here is the fifth chapter and I kin of enjoyed writing this one. It's got a lot of interaction between Grace and a few of my favourite other characters so it was fun :-) There will be 1 more chapter I think for the Chamber of Secrets and then I'm on to the third book which I am very excited about! **

**Thankyou to Annabella Black and HarryPotterRocks09 for the reviews so far I really hope you like this chapter!**

**I am trying to write the next chapter now, I have a couple of days now free to write it but it's got to be one of the hardest chapters so far to write and I'm really struggling with it :-[ I will still try to get it to you in the next few days though**

**Disclaimer: I definately dont own the harry potter series, I checked! **

**Chapter 5 – Boys Will Be Boys** (or that's their excuse anyway)

"Draco, I don't care!" Grace said as she stomped down the stairs and through the Entrance Hall.

"Please can you just stop," Draco begged. "I just want to talk to you."

"Well I just want to go to talk to my friends so if you don't mind-" Grace went to walk away and into the Great Hall but Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" growled Grace. They had gotten the attention of the few people that were milling around the Entrance Hall waiting for friends and Draco seemed uncomfortable about it. He dropped her arm and lowered his voice.

"Ace, just listen for a second, okay? Why don't you talk to me anymore?"

Grace groaned. All she really wanted to do was go have breakfast with Harry, Ron and Hermione and talk about how they managed to fly a car to Hogwarts. She hadn't had chance to talk to them last night or not properly anyway. Plus she was bitter about what had happened over the summer.

"Maybe I don't have anything to say to you, Draco."

"Come on Ace, you don't mean that."

"I don't?" she said coldly.

"No you don't. Look, I know you're still mad-"

"Mad! You have got to be joking!" Suddenly she was conscious of the people surrounding them too and she lowered her voice. "Your father could have _killed_ me Draco. Do you understand that? Does that mean _anything_ to you?"

"Don't say that. You know that he wouldn't."

"If that's what you have to tell yourself Draco, that's fine. But don't expect me to believe it too." With that she walked away from him and into the Great Hall.

She made a bee-line for Harry the minute she saw him.

"Tell me that what they are saying isn't true," she said sitting next him and looking between him and Ron.

"If you're talking about the flying car-" started Ron almost smugly.

"You drove a flying car here? Why? What is the train not good enough for you now?" She was looking at Harry as she said this, her eyebrows raised. To her surprise, Harry looked slightly ashamed of himself. She hadn't expected him to react to her words, other than to maybe tell her to shut up like Draco would have done. Grace glanced over to the Slytherin table and saw Draco looking up at her subtly. She took a deep breath; realising that she was angry at Draco, not Harry or Ron.

"Grace we couldn't get onto the platform!" said Ron defensively.

"What?" said Grace and they explained to her what had happened.

"That doesn't make any sense, why wouldn't you be able to get to the platform?"

The boys shrugged it off, neither one of them knowing or particularly caring too much what the answer was but Hermione caught her eye and they exchanged a dark look. _At least somebody is taking this seriously_, Grace thought.

For the rest of the day, Grace was quiet. Lessons seemed to take forever to end. Mostly she just wanted to be alone and _think_; which was unusual for her. Usually she liked to be the centre of attention, couldn't stand silence and hated being on her own but lately….

She skipped dinner, telling the others that she wasn't hungry and went to the Gryffindor tower thinking that maybe it would be almost empty with everyone down in the Great Hall. However the second that she stepped through the portrait hole, somebody called her over.

"Hey Grace! What are you doing here?"

She looked over to see the Weasley twins, both smiling and waving at her to come join them.

"Why aren't you at dinner?" said George.

"Didn't feel like it, I guess," she shrugged.

"Are you okay?" said Fred concerned.

"Was it something that Malfoy boy said to you earlier?" asked George.

"Because we can sort him out for you if you like."

"Yeah we can turn his hair pink."

"Or transfigure him into a snail."

"Or slip him a Babbling Beverage."

Grace laughed before the smile slipped from her face slowly. "So you saw that before?"

"Listen," said Fred, glancing at George. "We were just about to sneak into Hogsmeade if you want to come?"

Grace looked between them. "Are you serious?"

George nodded. "Yeah, come. It'll be fun."

"Okay," she agreed.

They led her down the passageway to the cellar of Honeydukes, getting out as soon as the shopkeepers back was turned.

"Hey Fred," said George.

"What?"

"Do you think this is one of the worst things we've done? Leading an innocent second year into delinquency?"

Grace giggled. It was so easy to be around the twins. Soon she was relaxing into the loud, talkative and lively girl that she had been before everything started getting so serious. They bought some food, eating it as they wandered around the shops, laughing and joking the entire time. The twins told her stories about what pranks they had pulled in and out of Hogwarts and promised her that they would let her in on the next one.

When it started to get dark, they decided it was time to started heading back. Sneaking back into the Honeydukes cellar was easier than Grace had expected and then they were in the secret passageway and on their way back.

"Grace?" said Fred.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"The Malfoys didn't give you a hard time about what happened in Diagon Alley, did they?"

Grace looked at Fred. He looked so troubled and so did George. Apparently, this had been bothering them for quite some time.

"Nah, nothing too bad," she lied smoothly and the twins relaxed and started smiling happily again. With a twinge of guilt, Grace realised that it felt so much worse lying to them than it had done when she lied to Blaise. Once again, she pushed the thought away.

Grace made up with Draco not long after the little excursion she had with the Weasley twins. She decided that if she was going to carry on pretending that everything was alright, she might as well start there. She also started to spend more time with Blaise; having realised that she had been neglecting him for too long and he was beginning to get slightly resentful about it.

The months past in a flurry of lessons, homework and detentions for Grace. Then rumours started about the Chamber of Secrets and people began gossiping about who the heir of Slytherin was. It was all anyone seemed to talk about anymore.

"So if it's not Potter, who do you think it is?" asked Blaise as they walked to the Slytherin common room.

Grace rolled her eyes as she entered the common room after Blaise. She saw Draco sat there with his usual followers Crabbe and Goyle. (**A/N this is the scene with the polyjuice potion so Crabbe and Goyle are really Harry and Ron but Grace doesn't know this).**

"Do you really think Potter is Slytherins heir?" asked Goyle.

"Oh Merlin, not this again!" groaned Grace as she sat with Blaise. "Honestly, you people need to find something new to talk about."

Draco laughed. "We can't help it Ace, it's just such a _fascinating_ subject, don't you think?" Grace threw a cushion at him. "Anyway Goyle, of course, I don't think it's Potter."

"Well, if it's not Potter, who is it?" asked Crabbe.

"I don't know who it is, how many times do I have to tell you two?"

Grace looked at them. She always wondered why they took such abuse of Draco all the time, if it really bothered them or if they were simply too stupid to notice that he was making fun of them but as she looked she saw that they were looking back at her. They looked confused as though they didn't expect her to be there. _Well that solves it_, she thought. _Definitely just too stupid to notice_. They had discovered in the first year that after the password had been said there was nothing to stop someone who wasn't from the house just waltzing right in and making themselves at home (which was what Grace did on a regular basis).

The boys continued to talk about the heir and the Chamber despite Grace's protests and she found her attention drifting away. It wasn't long before she had head slumped against Blaise's shoulder and began to fall asleep.

"Grace?" he said gently after a while. "Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed?"

Grace yawned widely and nodded sleepily. She took the hand he offered her and began to stumble up to his bed.

"Grace!" shouted Goyle. She spun round half-expecting some kind of attack but it was just Crabbe and Goyle looking at her incredulously.

"What?" she said baffled.

"Erm…..your room is…that way….somewhere," said Crabbe lamely pointing behind him to the way out of the Slytherin common room.

"So?" Grace stared at them. This wasn't the first time she had decided that her room was way too far away and it was much easier just to crash with Blaise. The beds were just about big enough after all.

Crabbe started to mutter incomprehensively.

"Draco could you please stop your friends from attacking my girlfriend," said Blaise as he continued to steer her away and into his room.

At breakfast the next morning, Hermione was missing and Harry and Ron were inexplicably cold towards Grace.

"Where's Hermione?"

No response.

"Hello? People I'm talking over here."

Nothing. What had she done to deserve the silent treatment?

"Harry? Ron?"

Now Grace was just getting annoyed.

"OI!" she yelled as loudly as she could.

Several of the people surrounding them jumped (Harry and Ron included), even some of the teachers looked over. Obviously, they decided that they couldn't ignore her anymore because Harry answered.

"What Grace?" he said unemotionally.

"I have been sat here trying to talk to you two for the last half hour. What's wrong with you? Where is Hermione?"

"Why you wanna go to bed with her now too?" muttered Ron under his breath but Grace had heard him.

"What are you talking about?" She looked bewildered between them.

"Why were you so ready to jump into bed with Zabini last night?" asked Harry.

"What? I wasn't….wait a minute. How do you know where I was last night? Are you two spying on me?" She had gone from bewildered to furious in a second and the boys noticed.

"Not exactly," said Ron.

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

"We weren't spying on _you_." Grace caught the emphasis.

"Who _were_ you spying on then?" she said through gritted teeth.

"Malfoy," Ron murmured.

"WHAT?" Grace was beyond furious now; she could feel the anger racing through her like fire. She could see red.

"Why would you do that?" she said slowly.

"We just wanted to make sure that he wasn't the heir, that's all-" started Harry but he didn't even get all the words out before he saw Grace visibly shaking with rage. All of a sudden, Grace's goblet exploded, startling everybody in the vicinity again. The noise, bustle and general use of un-practised magic in the hall was such that nobody (except the people sitting around them) noticed anything. Grace, however, sat there stunned….and so did the boys.

"Excuse me," she said abruptly and left the room quickly.

"Bloody hell," she heard Ron say before she left.

**Please dont forget to review! I'm a little bit disappointed by the lack of them, I would really like to know what you think because it does and has inspired me. I dont care if you hate the story just tell me why you hate it and then who knows? Maybe I can make it better!**


	6. What the Hell?

**This chapter was really hard, one of the reasons why its not my favourite chapter but it does its job i suppose. Basically it sets up the next few chapters. Let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I dont own the HP series, JK Rowling does.**

**Chapter 6 – What the Hell? **(pretty much my life motto)

Grace didn't speak to the boys for a long time after that. She started hanging out with the Gryffindor Quidditch team mostly; people like Fred and George, Oliver Wood and Katie Bell (when she wasn't with the Slytherins of course). These people didn't infuriate her.

It wasn't just that she was furious with Harry and Ron or upset that they hadn't believed her when she had told them that Draco Malfoy was not the heir to Slytherin; she was scared too. Grace could feel her self-control slipping and it was terrifying. In lessons, her magic was off as well. Ever since she had made that goblet explode, simple spells had become a challenge to her and, being quite a naturally gifted witch, this did more than just worry her.

However, she continued to act as if everything was normal. She was too proud to tell anyone about her problems (it was a shame that she had stopped spending time with the boys and consequentially Hermione because she had a feeling that she might have given in and told Hermione). She passed off her problems in lessons as rebellious indifference like she wasn't trying to learn the new spells instead of being unable to do them. She thought she had everybody fooled, that no one had noticed. She was wrong.

"Come in," said a voice from inside the door.

Grace pushed it open nervously, of all the teachers' offices she had been inside, Albus Dumbledore's was not one of them. She entered the room and sat in the seat he gestured to. He studied her quietly for a few moments, almost as though he was waiting for something. He broke the silence.

"Grace, would you like to tell me what is going on?"

Grace looked at him dubiously. "Didn't _you_ summon _me_?"

"Your teachers have expressed their concern about you. They say that your studies have…slipped somewhat."

She didn't answer.

"Grace, is there reason for this?"

Again, she didn't answer. Dumbledore waited, still watching her.

"If there is not a reason, I will be forced to take action. You will be suspended from school."

Grace felt her heart drop; she could already tell where this was going. If she got suspended from Hogwarts, she would not pass the conditions of her probation with Fudge.

"You will have to return to the Malfoy residence for the rest of the week-"

"NO!"

The glass in the window smashed into a million pieces. Dumbledore sighed and then waved his wand at the window which immediately fixed itself. He turned back to face Grace and surveyed her slowly.

"I think I see the problem. How long has this been happening?"

She faltered for a second, uncertain. Should she tell him? _What the hell_, she thought. _If anyone knows what's happening to me it has to be him_. She told him what had happened with the argument with Harry and Ron but left out what the argument was about (she didn't want to get the boys into trouble) and she told him how she had felt then, how she still felt. He looked concerned at first but then he smiled.

"At least now we don't have to suspend you," he said knowingly.

After that, she met with Dumbledore once a week secretly (she was still too proud to tell anyone). He taught her how to control her magic and her emotions better, he explained how her magic was tied to her emotions and that was why her magic failed her when her emotions were out of control. It was when she was going back to the common room from one of these private lessons that she had discovered Hermione stood in the library.

She had taken a shortcut that Fred and George had shown her through the library when she saw her.

"Hey Hermione," she said.

An uneasy feeling washed over her when she didn't answer. Something wasn't right but she couldn't quite figure out what. Hermione was standing so still, _too_ still. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach as she moved forward.

"Hermione?" She walked around to face her warily.

She screamed.

People came and moved around her, some of them talking to her. They asked what had happened, somebody needed to get Dumbledore, what was Grace doing there? Eventually, they moved her and Hermione but Grace barely felt or heard any of this. All she could do was stare at her friend. Even after they had moved them and people got in the way, it was still all she could see as though the image was imprinted forever in her mind. The image of Hermione Granger's petrified face.

The next few weeks passed in a blur for Grace. Dumbledore had gone so she could no longer have her private lessons with him but it didn't matter anyway. She didn't have the heart to get mad anymore, the fear of losing Hermione had driven the anger away. She started spending time with Harry and Ron again, all of them united because of what happened. Once Ginny had been taken, Grace didn't know how much more she could take. It was beginning to feel like she had fallen into one of those muggle horror movies and she couldn't find her way out again. But she had vowed like the other boys not to get involved in things that did not concern her. So she was surprised when she bumped into the boys on their way out of Lockhart's office with Lockhart himself following somewhat meekly.

"What are you doing?" she asked, taking in the scene with raised eyebrows.

"This excuse for a professor was about to just take off," answered Ron, glaring at Lockhart.

"I thought you were supposed to go down into the Chamber of Secrets," Grace said looking at Lockhart.

"He was, but he's a fake Grace. All that stuff from his books was a lie. He's just a coward," said Harry scornfully.

"Now listen here-"

"Keep walking!" ordered Ron pointing his wand at Lockhart and continuing down the corridor. Grace followed them with Harry.

"So where are you going?" Grace asked.

"Chamber of Secrets," said Harry.

"Harry-"

"Grace, we can't just leave Ginny down there."

"Yeah but Harry, there is a _basilisk_ down there. It's too dangerous."

"Nobody said you have to come."

"Yeah, right. And let you get yourself killed? Forget it, I'm coming."

Harry half- shrugged but he knew better than to argue. They reached the bathroom and Harry opened the entrance.

"Bloody hell," said Grace as they looked around what looked like a tunnel.

"I think it's this way," said Ron but as his attention slipped, Lockhart stole his wand.

"Oh I don't think so," he said pointing the wand at them. He started telling them all about how good he was at memory charms. _Why can't my stupid magic work now?_ Grace thought. _Then I could blow him up. Oh Merlin, here it comes….._

Lockhart had Ron's wand pointed at Grace and Ron who were standing next to each other.

"Obliviate," he said but as he said the incantation, something strange happened. The force of the spell knocked them all of their feet and part of the tunnel's ceiling caved in.

"Ow," said Grace getting to her feet. She didn't feel any different. She heard Ron coughing and walked over to help him up to. As the dust settled, Grace looked around.

"Harry?" she called.

"Grace? Ron?" said a muffled voice. It was coming from the other side of the rubble. She and Ron started digging until they could see him through a small hole.

"Are you okay?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, I think so," said Harry. "What about you two?"

"We're fine, memories intact and everything," replied Grace.

"How did I get here?" said a voice behind them. Grace and Ron turned to see Lockhart sitting on the ground and looking round with a slightly dazed look on his face. Exchanging a look with Ron, Grace spoke.

"Professor?"

"Professor? Me? You must be mistaken," he said.

"The spell must have back-fired," said Grace. She turned back to Harry.

"I'm going to keep going," he said.

Grace looked at him. "Okay," she said after a minute. "Just be careful."

"We'll keep digging," said Ron. "See if we can make a big enough hole for when you come back."

"Right," Harry said before continuing down the tunnel.

"It's very dark here," said Lockhart as they turned back to him. "Do you live here?"

"Can I hit him?" Grace said to Ron. "Please?"

About an hour later, they were still digging. It was tricky because the tunnel was so unstable, they didn't want it to collapse so it was very slow process and Grace was becoming more and more agitated.

"Where is he?" She had expected Harry to be back by now; he was taking way too long.

"I dunno," said Ron.

"Where is who?" asked Lockhart. They ignored him. Grace got up and started pacing while Ron carried on digging. Lockhart watched her progress from one wall to the other and back again interestedly. "You have purple in your hair, did you know?"

"Can you just shut up?" she snapped.

"That's not very polite," he told her before turning to Ron. "Your friend isn't very nice. Is she your girlfriend?"

"No," said Ron, his ears turning pink.

"Oh," he thought for a minute and then looked back at Grace. "You're not _my_ girlfriend are you?"

"Not a chance," she said.

He smiled. "What are we waiting for?"

"Harry," answered Ron.

"Is that your friend?"

"Yes."

"What if he doesn't come?"

"He will come," said Grace through gritted teeth.

"But what if he doesn't?"

"He will."

"But what if-"

"GRACE NO!"

Grace had dived for Lockhart but Ron tried to stop her but he just got in the way.

"OUCH!" said Ron holding his nose.

"Oh Ron I'm sorry!"

"You _punched_ me!"

"In fairness, I was going for him," she said pointing at Lockhart who was watching them with a vacant smile on his face as though he was only vaguely interested in the fact somebody had just attempted to assault him.

"Grace! Ron!"

Grace whirled around. "Harry?" she said in disbelief. Both her and Ron (despite his bleeding nose) moved the last few rocks out of the way as quickly as they could so that Harry could get back through. But he wasn't alone.

"GINNY!" Ron yelled before pulling his younger sister into a hug.

"Harry?" said Grace. "Why have you got a phoenix and a sword? And is that the sorting hat?"

"I'll explain everything later, I promise," Harry grinned somewhat tiredly. "Ron, what happened to your nose?"

"Grace punched me."

A few weeks later and everything was back to normal. Dumbledore was back as headmaster, the students and Filch's cat were returned to normal and the school was no longer under threat of closure. Oh and Ron's nose had been fixed.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Grace were on their way to the end-of-year feast when Draco caught up with them.

"Erm, Ace can I have a word?"

Grace was confused but agreed. "Save me a seat," she said to the others.

Draco waited until they were gone before he started.

"Listen, I heard about you and Blaise," he said looking at her intently. Grace had broken up with Blaise as soon she could having decided that he was more trouble than he was worth.

"What's it to you?" she replied.

"Well, you know my parents won't be happy with you anyway and I just think that it would be better if you at least _tried_ to…."

"Woah Drake, stop," Grace said interrupting him. She took a deep breath. "I'm not coming back this summer."

"You're what?"

"I'm not coming back this summer," she said slowly and carefully, letting it sink in. She had decided it as soon as she found out it was Lucius Malfoy that gave Ginny Riddle's diary. It didn't matter what Fudge said, she would not go back to the Malfoys.

"You can't do that. You can't just leave."

"I can, Drake," she said sympathetically. No matter what the others said, Draco wasn't bad, not really. It wasn't his fault his parents were pure evil. "I'll see you round Draco," she said sadly.

She walked away from him and went to sit at the Gryffindor table, forcing herself not to look back.

"So Miss Blackseyer, we are here to review the proposal of you removing yourself from the care of the Malfoys and living on your own," began Fudge officially.

Grace sat there quietly. She was sitting on her hands so that nobody would notice she had her fingers crossed.

"Do you have a suitable accommodation ready?" he asked.

She nodded and a ministry official confirmed it, having completed an inspection of the house a few weeks before the end of term.

"Have you hired the appropriate staff to ensure your well-being?"

Again she nodded and the same ministry official confirmed this too.

"Well, there have been no problems outside of school," he said smiling at her indulgently. So she had passed the first part. She knew she would, considering that she had only left Hogwarts the day before, she hadn't had time to cause any trouble outside of school. Not that she was going to tell them that.

"Is the report from Albus here?" Somebody moved from the corner of the room, handing him a piece of parchment. Grace held her breath while Fudge read the report. This was the bit that she was nervous about. She didn't know what Dumbledore had written and it was killing her. She hadn't exactly kept herself out of trouble what with being involved in the erasing of a teachers memory, going into the Chamber of Secrets and being very nearly suspended from school for failing in every single one of her subjects.

"Hmmm, I see," said Fudge. _What? What did he see? Come on Fudge, give me something,_ Grace thought. Her hands were beginning to go numb from underneath her legs but she didn't care. She held her breath for the verdict.

"Well Grace, I'm proud of you. Everything seems to be in order."

"Really?" she said, hardly daring to let herself believe it.

"Really," Fudge smiled.

"So I get to live on my own?"

"Yes you do," he replied. "But if I hear you are using this as an excuse for any more bad behaviour, you will be back in the foster care system faster than you can blink. Do I make myself clear Grace?"

"Crystal," she said, positively beaming as she signed her name on the dotted line of the new contract.

**So we are at the end of Chamber of Secrets YAY! It is honestly my least favourite book (which is why some of the facts may not be completely correct) but it felt lazy to skip it :-S Oh well...on to the Prisoner of Azkaban! Dont forget to review criticisms are welcomed!**


	7. The Escape of Sirius Black

**Okay so there are a few things in this chapter that come up later in the story if anyones slightly confused...dont worry everything will be explained :-)**

**Disclaimer: however much i would love to, i still dont own harry potter**

**Chapter 7 – The Escape of Sirius Black **(is actually ruining my life)

Grace was being escorted through the Ministry by an official-looking man who didn't look like he even had the ability to smile. His name was Barry….or Larry…or something like that and he hadn't once looked her in the eye. She felt like a criminal. What had she done wrong? _Nothing was the answer_, Grace thought. _Absolutely nothing._

She entered Fudge's office with her head held high and a very disgruntled expression.

"Ah, Miss Blackseyer, you have arrived." Fudge gestured for her to sit down. "We just have a few questions to ask you regarding-"

"Oh of course you do," she sneered. She sat down stiffly with her arms and legs folded tightly. Grace knew exactly what this was about and she was not impressed. "Can we get this over with?"

"Grace, I assure you, this is just routine. We have to ask these questions. People are in danger," Fudge pleaded. He needed her to understand, otherwise she would be even more unhelpful than she was probably already going to be.

"I know _that_ Minister," Grace answered scathingly. "What I don't know is why you are asking _me_ these questions. I know less about the situation than you do, after all."

"Miss Blackseyer," Fudge said reverting back to the more formal way of addressing her. "Do you know where Sirius Black is?"

"How the hell would I know where Sirius Black is?"

"Have you had any contact with him at all?"

"Oh yes he comes round my house for tea every bloody Thursday," she answered sarcastically.

"Do you have any information that would help us recapture Black?"

"What on earth would make you think that?"

For the first time, Fudge shifted uncomfortably. "Well…..some….information came to light that you might know something."

"Information? What kind of information? From where?" Grace glared at him. "Where have you been getting this…information from Minister?"

"That is confidential."

"Confidential my arse! You need to tell me right now where you got this from. Who the bloody hell has been…saying..." Grace's voice trailed off and then her jaw dropped. She had just realised exactly who would tell the Minister of Magic that she knew where Black was. "Malfoy? You listened to _Malfoy_?"

"Now Grace, you know we have to take allegations like this seriously no matter what the source is."

"But _Malfoy_? You know what he's trying to do, don't you? He's trying to discredit me! He's just mad that I moved out without him even knowing about it. You have got to be kidding me with this! You don't honestly believe anything that he's said, do you?"

Again Fudge shuffled in his chair awkwardly and for some reason could not quite meet her gaze.

"Great Minister! Just flipping fantastic! Are you really going to make me say it? Fine. I do not know where Sirius Black is or have any information as to where he would go. Happy?"

"No Grace, I am not happy," said Fudge having finally found his voice. "There is an escaped murderer on the loose. I'm sorry but we have to do everything we can to make sure that he is caught quickly. But you are free to go now Grace. We will summon you if we have anymore questions."

Grace rolled her eyes and went to stomp out the door but she was called back by Fudge.

"Oh and Grace? Before I forget, you will need to hire extra security until Black is caught. Make sure you speak to Kingsley Shacklebolt before you leave."

"Fine," she said and left before anyone cold say anything else to her.

Grace sat there in her makeup chair, idly turning the purple in her hair red with her wand and then examining it from all angles. However, as she looked at her hair, she began to notice other things. Her skin looked grey, her face so much thinner than it used to be and there were bags under her eyes that looked like bruises.

She was tired. The Black breakout was frightening her more than she let on and sleep had not exactly come easy to her over the last few weeks. It also might have something to do with the fact that this was her fifteenth show in the last week alone. Her manager was a nice enough man but he was making her perform everywhere, do several interviews a day and Merlin only knows how many photo shoots. He wanted to not only make her famous amongst the magical community but the muggle one too which was good until you had to fit all that in to one summer holiday.

"Maria Seyer! You have two minutes!"

The voice echoed around all the rooms. Sighing, Grace got up from her chair to go and face the hundreds of people outside.

Adrenaline kicked in and the show went quite well. Somehow she managed to pull it off without looking like she was about pass out. _Maybe that's why he thinks he can keep giving me more work_, thought Grace. _If I did a really bad show, he wouldn't be so eager. _

"You were great!" said a voice behind her. It was one of the dancers (she couldn't remember his name). He strode over to her confidently, a bottle in his hand. "Want to go celebrate?"

"No sorry. I really have to be going." She smiled so that his feelings wouldn't be hurt.

"Aww come on. Just one drink then." He conjured two glasses out of thin air and offered her one. She took it automatically and he poured her a glass of whatever was in the bottle.

"Here's to an amazing show!" he declared raising his glass to her before draining it in one.

"And to many, _many_ more," she agreed with a slight smile as she imitated him.

The liquid burned her throat like fire and she was not prepared for it. He laughed as she coughed and made a face.

"What's the matter? Never tried firewhiskey before?" he said condescendingly.

Her eyes were watering slightly as she felt the effects of the firewhiskey kick in. That fire that had been in her throat somehow seemed to settle in her stomach, making all the exhaustion fade away.

"Give me that," she said snatching the bottle out of his hand and taking another drink straight from it. This time she was better prepared and she found that she actually quite like the taste (once the burning had gone away).

"Woah! Steady on Seyer!" he said though still clearly amused.

"Listen, I really have to go now. See you later," she said suddenly much happier than she was and taking the bottle with her.

As she got onto the platform, Grace looked around for her friends. It didn't take her long to spot the mass of ginger hair that was the Weasleys and then Harry and Hermione that were with them. Slowly she made her way over to them through the crowd of families.

"Grace! How have you been?" greeted Mr Weasley once he saw her, coming over to shake her hand.

"I'm fine," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm good, Grace. Have you met my wife?" he said leading her over to Mrs Weasley. "Grace, this is my wife Molly. Molly this is Grace Blackseyer."

"It's lovely to meet you dear," said Mrs Weasley, smiling warmly. "Arthur has told me so much about you, have you met all our children?"

Grace smiled back. "I think so," she said but she was introduced to them all again anyway as Mr Weasley led Harry away for a private word. Grace's eyes narrowed suspiciously at them but before she could follow, Mrs Weasley pulled her over to meet Ginny.

"And this is our daughter Ginny," said Mrs Weasley, evidently unaware of the fact that since the Chamber of Secrets fiasco, Grace and Ginny had talked a lot. They had actually become quite close.

"Hey Ginny," said Grace smiling and winking at her.

"Hi," replied Ginny giggling but playing along.

As soon as Mrs Weasley's back had turned to give out sandwiches to the others, Grace hugged Ginny, greeting her properly.

"Sorry about my mum," laughed Ginny.

"Oh don't worry about it," said Grace lightly. "How's your summer been then?"

"Not bad, we got to go see Bill in Egypt. What about yours?"

"Crap," said Grace with a quick glance at Mrs Weasley (she didn't want to fall out of grace too quickly with her).

"Hey!" said Fred and George suddenly.

"Why does Ginny get a hug?" said Fred.

"Yeah, I don't think that's fair!" said George.

"We've known you for longer."

"We should definitely get priority hugging."

Before she could get away or protest at all, they had both pulled her into a hug, intentionally smothering her.

"Guys, I….can't…breathe," she said, her voice muffled.

"Boys, leave her alone," said Mrs Weasley disapprovingly.

They let her go both grinning evilly at her. She playfully shoved them both away.

"Right, everybody on the train. Have a good time. Be good. I mean it boys." Mrs Weasley started shooing them onto the train. "See you soon and don't forget to write."

Eventually, Harry joined them just as the train set off and together they went and found an almost empty compartment. It felt strange without Draco, this was the first time she had been on the Hogwarts Express without him. She sat next to the man who was apparently Professor R. J. Lupin and listened, but did not join in, to their conversation about Sirius Black and how Harry did not have permission to go to Hogsmeade.

When the witch with the food trolley came, Grace asked for some of just about everything.

"Hungry Grace?" asked Ron gazing at all the stuff she had bought. She saw that the other two were staring at her with open mouths too.

"What?" she said, almost defensively. "I'm hungry, is that okay with you?"

The others just nodded but then looked at Lupin. "D'you think we should wake him up?" asked Ron.

Grace leaned slightly closer to him. "Professor?" she said gently so she didn't wake him up too abruptly. "Erm, Professor?" she said more loudly when he didn't respond.

The witch told them where she would be if wanted anything when he woke up and moved on.

"I suppose he _is_ asleep?" said Ron once she had gone. "I mean – he hasn't died, has he?"

"No" answered Grace. "I can hear him breathing," she said starting to eat one of her cauldron cakes.

When Malfoy turned up about half way through the afternoon and started making fun of Ron, he carefully ignored Grace completely like she wasn't even there. That hurt, she knew he would be mad at her for leaving but to just pretend she didn't exist? _No, that was below the belt_, she thought.

They continued travelling through the country; Lupin managed to sleep through Malfoy's visit and Ron and Hermione's arguments as well as the rain that pounded against the window right by his head.

Just as Ron was wishing we would be nearly there, the train unexpectedly started slowing down.

"We can't be there yet," said Hermione.

"So why are we stopping?" asked Ron. He went to go look out the window to see if he could tell what was going on but the lights went out, plunging them all into darkness and he accidently trod on Grace's foot.

"Ouch! Ron!"

"Sorry Grace," he said as he reached the window. "I think there's something moving out there."

That's when Neville joined them, shortly followed by Ginny. It was pitch black so lots of falling over each other ensued. Grace resolved to stay in her seat but, as both Neville and Ron had nearly sat on top of her, that evidently did not guarantee safety.

"Quiet!" commanded a voice to Grace's right so suddenly that it scared her. She jumped violently and very nearly landed on top of Lupin. She narrowly missed so when Lupin lit up the room, nobody noticed except him as she was sitting a lot closer to him than before.

"Bloody hell," she muttered as her heart rate began to get back to its normal pace.

Lupin glanced at her and Grace could have sworn that he looked confused as though he wasn't expecting her to be there but then he started making his way towards the door. "Stay where you are," he said.

However, he didn't get halfway across the compartment before the door opened revealing a dementor. All of a sudden the room was freezing; Grace felt her heart slow down and her breathing become shallow.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry fall out of his seat and onto the floor. Part of her wanted to help him but it was like she was frozen. She couldn't move. Lupin stepped up.

"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go." Then he pulled out his wand and shot a spell at it. As the dementor left, the room instantly became warmer. She sighed with relief but the remembered Harry and dived to the ground with Ron and Hermione.

"Harry?" said Hermione looking terrified. Ron looked pale as he began shaking him, trying to get a response out of him. Vaguely, Grace wondered what she looked like now before she pushed the thought away.

"Ron move," she said, stepping in front of him and slapping Harry across the face.

"Grace!" protested Hermione but Harry started stirring. He started muttering about what had happened asking who had screamed before Lupin started handing out chocolate and leaving to go speak to the driver. As soon as he had gone, Grace ate the chocolate and pulled out a flask from her bag. She drank a mouthful as though she was washing the chocolate down. Hermione looked at her strangely but didn't comment while Ron filled Harry in on everything that he had missed.

Soon Lupin returned and paused in the doorway. "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know," he said smiling. Grace looked around too, everybody else was still holding their chocolate and she suppressed a smirk.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Lupin. "Are you alright, Harry?"

"Fine."

The rest of the trip was fairly quiet and when they reached the station, it was with great relief that they all tumbled out.

**What did you think? Next chapter we get to see Grace in a few of the lessons something that I know I havent really done yet but anyways...**


	8. Lethal Lessons

**This chapter did not take long to write at all, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

**Disclaimer: i dont own harry potter.**

**Chapter 8 – Lethal Lessons**

"I can't believe many classes you're making me take," groaned Grace at breakfast the next morning.

"_I'm_ not making you do anything," replied Hermione without looking up from her toast.

"No, _they_ are," said Grace glaring up at the staff table. McGonagall had told her yesterday that this year they would be trying something new called the 'Buddy System'. She (as one of the worst students last year) would be paired with the student who did the best in the last end-of-year exams, the student who incidentally was taking a ridiculous amount of classes this year: Hermione Granger.

"Cheer up Grace," said Fred, sitting next to her.

"You look like someone just killed your cat," said George.

"McGonagall's making me take about a million classes this year," moaned Grace.

"Don't exaggerate Grace," said Hermione.

The twins looked at her sympathetically. "It could be worse though," said George thoughtfully.

"How could it _possibly_ be worse?"

"Well, someone could _actually_ kill your cat," suggested Fred.

"It's not funny," said Grace, smiling a little in spite of herself.

Just then Harry and Ron arrived. Harry dropped into the seat next to George grumpily.

"What's the matter with you?" said Hermione.

"Malfoy," answered Harry and they all looked up in time to see Malfoy do his fainting impression.

"Slimy git," said George calmly. "He wasn't so cocky when the dementors were down our end of the train, was he Fred?"

"Came into our compartment. Nearly wet himself," agreed Fred as George passed over their timetables.

Grace groaned again as she looked at hers. "Hermione, you are insane," she said when she remembered that Hermione had volunteered for this.

"Hi Grace." Oliver Wood had just joined them. "How was your summer?"

"Good," she replied. "What about yours? Didn't you go away with your mum this summer?"

He grinned, obviously pleased that she had remembered. "Yeah it was great. We went to Turkey."

She flashed him a smile, looking impressed and playing with her necklace.

"I have to go talk to McGonagall," he said nodding to the staff table. "But I'll see you later."

"Definitely," said Grace.

"Oh and Quidditch practise starts on Thursday," he said to the twins and Harry before smiling once more at Grace and walking away.

"How is it Fred that we spend _all morning_ trying to cheer Seyer up and after a few minutes with Wood, she's grinning like a Cheshire cat?"

"Oh shut up," she said. "What is it with you and cats anyway?" she joked but she noticed that Fred wouldn't quite look her in the eye and was no longer smiling like his brother. "Come on, Divination first," she said to the others.

Divination and Transfiguration were dull. She did not believe that Trelawney could predict the future anymore than she could and she found animagi only vaguely interesting so by lunchtime, Grace was once again in a bad mood only perking up on the way down to Hagrid's. Care of Magical Creatures was one of the lessons she was actually interested in and she liked Hagrid so she was excited.

It was all going well. Grace ignored Malfoy's comments about Hagrid and listened to what he was saying about the hippogriff. She watched as Harry walked up to it and bowed, held her breath with the rest of the class when Buckbeak didn't bow back and clapped when it did.

When it was her turn, after bowing to the creature, Grace patted its head fondly. She was amazed by them; she agreed with Hagrid, they were beautiful.

"Grace, I think he likes you," beamed Hagrid. Grace smiled pleased with herself and continued patting and stroking her hippogriff but it didn't last long.

"This is very easy," Draco drawled. "I knew it must have been if Potter could do it….I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? "Are you, you ugly great brute?"

"Draco!" shouted Grace, startling her own hippogriff. It almost could have happened in slow motion. All she could do was watch as Buckbeak reared angrily, catching Draco's arm with its talons. Hagrid rushed forward. He wrestled it back as Draco lay on the floor, blood appearing on his robes.

"I'm dying! It's killed me!" he yelled as Grace ran over to him and knelt by his side.

"Yer not dyin'!" said Hagrid looking very pale and coming over to them.

"He has to go to the Hospital Wing Hagrid!" said Grace, feeling slightly sick as she saw the amount of blood coming from his arm. Nodding shakily, Hagrid picked him up easily and took him up to the castle quickly.

The class erupted, all talking about what had happened.

"D'you think he'll be all right?" said Hermione nervously.

"Course he will," said Harry looking at Grace who had gone very pale. "Madam Promfrey can mend cuts in about a second."

After dinner, they went up to the common room. Grace didn't even attempt to do any work, she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate. She stood by the window, staring into space when she saw a light come on in the corner of her eye.

"Hagrid's back," she said.

"If we hurried, we could go and see him, it's still quite early..." said Ron.

They agreed and went to Hagrid's hut. They found out that Hagrid had not been sacked and convinced him to stop drinking. However, once he had sobered up slightly, he yelled at them all for coming seeing him at night and practically dragged them all back up to the castle.

All in all it was _not_ a fun first day back.

In fact most of the first week was pretty horrible. If it wasn't for Hermione, Grace wouldn't have even made it to all of her lessons. It got confusing, remembering which ones she had been to and which ones she hadn't (not that she hadn't tried intentionally skipping a few on that pretence either).

Snape was his usual horrid self in their first Potions lesson. He criticized Grace's uniform (so her skirt was slightly shorter than the school's rules permitted….big deal) but he bullied poor Neville mercilessly. So much that Grace spent all of the way to the next lesson trying to comfort him with Hermione.

"It doesn't matter Neville, really," said Grace as they took their seats in Defence against the Dark Arts. "I mean, so what if you can't make a shrinking solution? When would you use that in real life anyway?"

Hermione opened her mouth as if to tell her exactly when a shrinking solution would be useful before Grace shook her head slightly and giving her a look that made her shut her mouth again.

"Good afternoon," said Professor Lupin as he entered the class. "Today's will be a practical lesson. You will only need your wands. Kindly follow me."

The class looked at each other curiously before putting their books away and following him out of the classroom and down the corridor.

They reached the staff room and Grace's eyes narrowed when she saw Snape sitting there. To her relief, he got up to leave but before he left he turned back and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything too difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear." Grace opened her mouth, enraged by Snape's taunts but he spotted her and got there first. "And, of course, Grace Blackseyer, who seems completely incapable of following the _simplest_ of school rules."

Professor Lupin raised his eyebrows.

"I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation and I'm sure he will perform it admirably. As for Miss Blackseyer, she has yet to break any rules in front of me."

Snape's lip curled but he left, shutting the door behind him.

"Now then," said Lupin brightly leading them over to a wardrobe at the back of the room. "Today we will be studying Boggarts." Grace's heart sunk. _Oh no…._

"So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?"

As always, Hermione's hand shot up.

"It's a shape shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us the most."

"Couldn't have put it better myself."

"So what does it look like now?" asked Dean Thomas.

"Nobody knows," said Grace before Lupin could answer. She was eyeing the wardrobe warily. "No one's ever seen one when it's been alone."

"That's correct, well done Grace," said Lupin but Grace didn't look happy with herself like Hermione had. She still hadn't taken her eyes off the wardrobe. "The Boggart is sitting in there and has not yet assumed a form. However, as soon as I open this door it will become whatever each of us fears. This means that we have a huge advantage already. Have you spotted it Harry?"

Grace didn't hear Harry answer. All she could think about was how she suddenly did not want to be in this lesson any longer.

"Right Neville," said Lupin. "What would you say frightens you the most?"

How was she going to get out of it? She debated pretending that she was sick but somehow she didn't think that the Professor would buy it. She had been fine all lesson, after all. She could accidently on purpose set fire to the wardrobe but that would land her in a heap of trouble. If she had had some kind of warning, maybe she could have planned something a bit better…

Suddenly she was out of time.

"I would like all of you to take a moment to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you would make it look comical…"

The class went quiet.

"Can I be excused?" The words burst out of Grace's mouth loudly before she had even thought up a good enough excuse. Everybody turned to look at her.

"Could I ask why?" Lupin said looking questioningly at her.

"Um….personal reasons?" she said more quietly.

Lupin considered her for a moment and then sighed. "Wait outside, Grace," he said looking disappointed in her.

She walked out of the staff room without looking back and stood leaning on the wall next to the door. She knew Lupin would want a better explanation but unfortunately for her, she couldn't think of a single thing. Footsteps echoed in the corridor from around the corner. _Great_, she thought. _Just what I need, if this is Snape… _

But it wasn't Snape. Oliver Wood came around the corner with a few books under his arm. He stopped short when he noticed Grace and grinned.

"What did you do this time?" he asked her.

"Who said I did anything? Maybe I just like standing here."

"Of course," he smirked.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"I need to talk to Madam Hooch. Book the Quidditch pitch for practises."

They went quiet for a minute. Oliver kept opening his mouth as if to say something but he closed again quickly.

"She's not in there," said Grace, breaking the silence.

"What?" he said blankly.

"Madam Hooch. She's not in there," explained Grace. "Lupin's teaching a class in there."

"Right," said Oliver vacantly. "Listen Grace, I meant to ask you before…the Hogsmeade weekend will be coming up soon and I was wondering if…well…I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?"

Grace smiled. "Yeah, okay." He smiled back in relief.

"Okay," he said. "So I need to go, bye Grace."

"Bye Oliver," she said, waving slightly as he looked back at her.

She heard the class behind her heading for the door. _Crap_. She still hadn't thought of a good enough reason as to why she needed to leave the class. They filed out of the door. Harry, Hermione and Ron looked at her confused but before they could say anything, Lupin came out.

"Miss Blackseyer, follow me please."

She shrugged at them and followed him back to his office.

"Sit down Grace."

She sat on one of the chairs by his desk as he shut the door behind them. He didn't speak again until he had sat down opposite her.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?"

Still without a good enough lie, Grace decided on the truth…..or part of it anyway.

"I didn't want to face the Boggart," she said simply. "I already know how to get rid of one anyway."

"Why didn't you want to face the Boggart?" he said carefully. He was treating her as if she was a ticking time bomb, like she was going to explode any second and it was beginning to annoy her.

She shrugged but didn't answer.

"What would it have turned into?" he asked.

She folded her arms and looked away from him.

"Grace, what are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," she retorted. She knew how childish she sounded but she didn't care. Who did he think he was? Her personal life was none of his business."Are you going to give me a detention or not?"

Lupin sighed.

"No, I'm not."

"So can I go now?"

"Yes Grace. You can go," he said resignedly. "Miss Granger can pass on the homework assignment."

She got up, grabbed her bag and went to open the door.

"Miss Blackseyer?" She stopped reluctantly, keeping her hand on the door handle. "If you ever want to tell me the truth, you know where I am."

Grace pursed her lips but didn't reply and left without looking back.

**Dont forget to review!**


	9. Revelations

**I know I only updated this story like yesterday but this chapter just came to me so quickly so here you go...**

**Disclaimer: I dont own the harry potter series as hard as that is to believe ;-)**

**Chapter 9 - Revelations **

The next few weeks passed quite quickly. After the first lesson, Grace took a much more active part in Lupin's lessons. She quickly learned that he was a genuinely sincere person and even though he still had no right knowing about her personal life, she was beginning to warm to him. Plus, she had to admit the man could make a lesson interesting.

On the other hand, taking so many lessons was beginning to take its toll on her. Grace admired Hermione for her enthusiasm but she couldn't do it and she began to stop doing her homework assignments for the majority of her lessons.

"Why can't you just do it, Grace? You know, get it over with?" Hermione had once asked her.

"Well, then I would have nothing to do in the detentions," she had replied. Hermione had just shook her head in defeat and turned back to her own work.

Potions was now her least favourite lesson. After the story of Snape in a dress had gotten around the school (Grace was absolutely devastated that she had missed it), Snape had become downright evil and he seemed to get worse after each lesson. The only thing that kept Grace going was the thought of the Hogsmeade trip with Oliver. They had started spending a lot of time together. Whenever they weren't in lessons, Oliver wasn't at Quidditch practise and Grace wasn't in detention, they would sit in the common room together or go to meals together. However, this would be the first time that they would spend any time alone with each other and she was couldn't wait. Oliver was so much nicer than Blaise, who hadn't spoken to her since they broke up.

The morning arrived and Grace spent ages thinking about what she was going to wear. Finally she decided on something and met Oliver in the entrance hall after breakfast. She almost forgot to tell Harry how sorry she was that he couldn't go into the town.

They spent the first part of the trip strolling around Hogsmeade and visiting a few shops on the way around.

"I love this shop!" said Grace as they walked around Honeydukes.

"Yeah, me too. Have you seen these?" said Oliver pointing to the Fizzing Whizzbees.

They bought their sweets and left the shop. "Why don't we go to the Broomsticks?" suggested Oliver. She agreed and they went to the Three Broomsticks, talking to a few other students on the way. Grace went to get a table while Oliver went for the drinks.

"This has been fun," said Oliver as he came over to the table with the drinks.

"Yeah it has," agreed Grace, blushing slightly. "Maybe we should do this again."

Oliver nodded and they spent the rest of the day talking about Quidditch, how her new house was working out and what they were going to do for the holidays. They talked about everything and by the time they got back to Hogwarts, everyone seemed to know that Grace Blackseyer was now the Gryffindors Quidditch Captain's girlfriend.

She honestly thought her day couldn't have gotten any better. She hadn't stopped smiling all day. Though of course, everything could not stay this good, something had to go wrong.

They were going up to the common room when they saw everybody waiting outside the portrait.

"What's happening?" asked Grace as soon as she saw Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore, quick!" said Percy Weasley sharply. As soon as the teachers arrived, they moved closer to find out what was going on. When Grace saw what was left of the painting, her jaw dropped but the worst was still to come. Professor Dumbledore was talking to Peeves.

"Oh, yes, Professorhead," said Peeves. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

Grace tensed. _What_ _could Black possibly want here?_ She looked at the shredded remains of the painting again and turned her back to it. She didn't want to look at it anymore. Oliver put his arms around her and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lupin looking at her once again with that curious expression on his face as though he couldn't quite work her out.

When Dumbledore sent them back to the Great Hall, Oliver half carried her back. Somehow, she had lost the ability to move on her own.

"Come on Grace," whispered Oliver soothingly. "It's okay, they'll catch him. Don't worry. It's going to be fine."

He grabbed them both a sleeping bag and she spent the night staring into space, lying next to Oliver.

The next few days all Grace heard about was Sirius Black and with Oliver so preoccupied with Quidditch, she didn't even have him to distract her. Everyone had their own theory as to how Black got into the castle and as the rumours spread, they got more and more ridiculous. Grace tried to ignore them, she really did, but even when she was alone and away from everyone all she could think about was how close he must have been to them.

Grace began to try to push it all to the back of her mind and without any news on Black, she nearly succeeded but she didn't know that everything was about to get much worse. Of course it had to be Snape that pushed her over the edge.

Snape was covering Lupin's lesson. He had already deducted about twenty points from Gryffindor for no reason and insulted Lupin and most of the class.

"Which of you can tell me how to distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?"

Hermione bobbed up and down in her seat but Snape ignored her.

"Anyone?" His twisted smile infuriated Grace and she started imagining how good it would feel to chuck the textbook at his head. "Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction between-"

"We told you," said Grace through gritted teeth. "We haven't got as far as werewolves yet."

"Silence!" snarled Snape. "Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even recognise a werewolf when they saw one."

"Please sir," said Hermione, unable to stop herself. "The werewolf differs from the true wolf in several ways-"

"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn Miss Granger," said Snape. "Five points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all."

Hermione looked as though she was about to cry and that did it for Grace.

"You asked a question and she gave you the answer," said Grace loudly. "Why ask if you don't want to be told?"

The rest of the class held their breath as Snape advanced on Grace but Grace just glared at him defiantly, refusing to be intimidated by him. He stopped in front of her.

"If I ever hear you criticise the way I teach a class again, you will be sorry," he said silkily and then he smiled evilly. "Detention, Miss Black."

The class erupted in whispers all around her as she just sat there staring at him.

"Black?"

"What?"

"Black? As in _Sirius_ Black?"

"_Black_seyer-"

Grace listened as her classmates put the pieces together as Snape still stood there watching her reaction with that malicious glint in his eyes before half-heartedly returning to the front of the class to teach.

The news that Grace Blackseyer was actually Sirius Black's daughter travelled around the school like wildfire. Most students now avoided her as though she was going to lose it and start killing people any second. Rumours started that she had let Black into the castle at Halloween, that she had even helped him escape from Azkaban.

It didn't really matter to her that much what people said; she was used to people saying bad things about her. She could never make everyone like her after all and generally she didn't care what they thought. Most of the people that knew her well, stood by her like Oliver, the Weasleys and a few others. What did bother her though was Harry's reaction.

"You're _his_ daughter?" he had said to her after the class.

Grace nodded apprehensively.

"You lied to me." It was a statement not a question.

"No. I never lied, Harry," said Grace.

"You just never told me the truth," he said, his voice getting louder by the second.

"Hey," she said. "It's not my fault and it's not like you ever asked!"

"Harry, she can't help who her father is-" began Hermione looking between the two of them nervously.

"Don't defend her Hermione! She's probably just like him!" Harry yelled.

"Oh don't be so over-dramatic," said Grace.

"Why? What are you going to do about it, Black?"

"Ron, do something!" said Hermione uneasily. But Ron didn't move. People were starting to gather now, expecting a fight.

"Don't start with me, Potter!" Grace stepped up to him angrily. He was one of her best friends. How could he treat her like this? They were standing nose to nose now.

"HEY!"

Oliver Wood had rounded the corner with some of his friends. As soon as he had seen what was going on, he ran the last few steps towards them. He stepped in between Harry and Grace.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Why don't you ask your girlfriend?" spat Harry, glaring daggers at Grace. The emotions of the last few days suddenly exploded inside Grace, all of a sudden it became too much and she went for Harry who immediately responded and dived for her too. Oliver, still a little bewildered by the situation, used the reactions that came with being Keeper and seized Grace before she reached him. He started pulling her away from Harry who was being pulled in the opposite direction by one of Oliver's friends.

Harry seemed to recognise defeat before Grace did and soon stopped struggling against the seventh-year.

"Just stay away from me, Black!" He stalked off, Hermione and Ron followed him but not before shooting Grace an apologetic look. Well, at least _they_ didn't hate her, she thought.

Harry refused to talk to her after that and even though Ron and Hermione knew Grace had nothing to do with Black, they stayed with him.

"He'll come around eventually," Hermione had whispered to her at the back of one lesson. Somehow, Grace couldn't quite see it.

For the most part, Grace just stayed with Oliver, who had been incredibly understanding about the whole thing had taken to yelling and sometimes even threatening anybody who said anything against her. Though, eventually this became problematic in Quidditch practises as everything that Harry said that involved Grace was bad so Grace told them to stop.

On the way down to the Quidditch pitch, Grace couldn't stop herself feeling a little smug until she remembered that most of the team had supported her and they would be out there in that weather too.

Putting aside her feelings towards Harry, she cheered along with the rest of her house. She was one of the first to notice the Dementors.

"LOOK!" she shouted to Hermione over the wind, pointing to them.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed. Grace looked up just in time to see Harry fall off his broom and hurtle to the ground.

"Oh no, please no," Grace said as she made her way through the crowd and out of the stands. She sprinted across the pitch when she reached it to where Harry was lying very still. In a matter of seconds she was surrounded by players, teachers and other students.

She followed them to the Hospital Wing and almost collapsed herself when she found out that he was going to be fine. Only then did she look around to see who had come with her. Ron and Hermione were there as well as the Gryffindor team. Everybody except Oliver.

"Where's Oliver?" she asked.

"Still in the changing rooms," answered George. "Wait, where are you going?"

Grace had started for the door. "I'm going to go see him. Is that okay with you?"

"What about Harry?" said Fred.

"Didn't you hear Madam Promfrey? He's going to be fine. He won't want me here when he wakes up anyway."

"Grace-"

"Forget it guys. See you later."

She walked out of the Hospital Wing and set off for the changing rooms but as she got half way through the castle, she stopped. Every student that passed stared at her as if she was a zoo animal but she ignored them. She took a deep breath. Half the school hated her. Harry could hardly be in the same room as her. And somewhere out there was her father; a man who she knew nothing about, except that he had killed a street full of people.

Somehow going and comforting Oliver about the game did not seem like something she wanted to do anymore. She turned around and headed for the Gryffindor tower instead. She walked straight through the common room and up to her dormitory. After pulling the curtains around her bed so that no one would see her, she pulled her bag out from under the bed and took out a bottle.

That was the first night she drank until she passed out.

**So now we know who Grace is...it proably wasn't really that much of a surprise but I enjoyed writing it anyway! **


	10. When Everything Falls Apart

**This is by far the longest story I have written so far and I haven't even got bored of it yet! This chapter took quite a while to write but I'm fairly pleased with it (most of it anyway) and I can't wait to hear what you think (seriously people don't just favourite and put it on story alert, review too!) **

**Disclaimer: I dont own the HP series and I really doubt that I ever will but there's always hope ;-)**

**Chapter 10 – When Everything Falls Apart **

The thought of spending Christmas with Harry was unbearable so for the first time Grace left Hogwarts for the holidays. Although the minute she walked through the door to the big, empty house, she almost wished she had stayed at school. She had never felt more alone in her entire life and she immediately sent her house elf out to get her some more firewhiskey.

"I need a drink," she muttered to herself. "That's all."

However, it wasn't just one drink. With no one there to stop her, one drink turned into one bottle which turned into one crate. Looking back, this was where everything started going wrong for Grace. She drank too much, ate too little and almost never slept and this was how she ended up completely smashed for the Annual Christmas Show.

Grace was supposed to make an appearance and perform three songs (one of her own songs and then two Christmas ones) for the prestigious event. She made it on to the stage and managed to thank everyone for coming fairly well; she was more giggly than usual but people mostly just put that down to nerves. The first two songs went fine too….well….the dancing was probably not as good as it could have been but at least she remembered all the words. Then it happened, half-way through the last song the room started spinning violently and the floor got a whole lot closer very quickly. She had collapsed….on stage…in front of thousands of people. Fan_- bloody- _tastic.

The backlash was unbelievable. Grace had never known anything like it. Her manager had tried to cover for her, telling everyone that she had collapsed from exhaustion but as the crew had found several empty bottles of rum in Grace's changing room, Grace thought the effort was a bit pointless. The papers printed story after story about it and somehow even managed to find out facts like how she was living on her own and she had been interrogated by the ministry about Sirius Black. People were in an uproar to say the least.

Grace spent the majority of the rest of the holiday in bed and cancelled pretty much everything that she had had planned. Oliver came to visit at some point. He believed the exhaustion story and she didn't have the heart to set him straight. It was a definite low point. She didn't want to go back to school; just the thought of it filled her with dread. Nevertheless, the time came when she had no choice but to pack up her stuff and go back to face the other students.

Grace trudged as slowly as she could through the gates and up the path that led her to Hogwarts. She had opted to walk instead of getting the usual carriages, wanting the journey to take as long as possible.

She took a deep breath before entering the castle and then hurried through the entrance hall and up the stairs, praying that she wouldn't meet anyone on the way. She should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

"Merlin, Grace! You look awful!"

Grace turned, readying herself for a fight and her mouth already half open, about to tell whoever it was exactly where they could shove it, only to come face-to-face with Fred Weasley. She quickly shut her mouth.

"So which story is true?" he asked taking her bags from her. "Are you the raging alcoholic or the worn out rock star wannabe?"

"The first one," she admitted. _Why was she telling him the truth?_

He nodded seriously. "Do you want to talk about it?" _What was it to him?_

"Not really."_ Why did he even care?_

"Okay."

"Look, Fred. I can get my bags myself. I don't need your help."

"I know," he said, refusing to giver her back her bags and still walking with her. She sighed. They got to the portrait hole faster than Grace had wanted to and she hesitated outside.

"We don't have to go in, if you don't want to," he said gently.

"Oh yeah? You wanna camp out here all night?"

He laughed. "Well maybe not right here but I bet we could go find a nice cosy bit of floor over there though."

She smiled. "Thanks Fred," she said sincerely. "Come on. Let's go get this over with."

Together they entered the common room. It was not as bad as Grace thought it was going to be. Only a few people really stared at her and there were a few whispers but nothing she couldn't handle.

George joined them. "Woah, Grace! Doesn't your place have any food?" he said.

"One day I'm going to have to explain the idea of sugar-coating to you two," she said rolling her eyes. Then she spotted Oliver. "I'm going to go talk to Oliver. Be back in a minute."

They nodded as she left them and made her way through the students. It wasn't until she was standing a couple of feet away that she realised who Oliver was talking to: _Harry_. She stopped dead. She didn't think she was ready to face him again just yet. But it was too late, he'd seen her.

"Oliver, I'll be back in a minute. Grace, can I talk to you?"

Oliver turned and saw Grace. He looked between them suspiciously. Meanwhile Grace just stared at Harry in shock. _What could he want to talk to her about?_

Finally she nodded. They went to walk out of the common room but Oliver held them back.

"Grace, do you want me to come?" His eyes were on Harry.

Grace shook her head firmly and followed Harry back out of the portrait hole and down the corridor to an empty classroom.

"Did you know?" he said once he had shut the door behind them.

"Did I know what?" she said warily, sitting on one of the desks.

"Your dad and mine were best friends….well….up until your dad sold mine to Voldemort."

"What?"

"Inseparable apparently," he said watching her reaction carefully.

"Harry I have no idea what you're talking about. Now is that all you wanted? Because I really need to be getting back," she said getting off the table.

"Are you completely incapable of telling the truth or something? You _must_ have known…"

"No Harry I didn't. And for the record, I have never, in all the time that we have been friends, lied to you."

"Friends? We were not friends-" he started but Grace didn't let him finish. She'd heard enough.

"Not friends? You're kidding me right?" she said, her hands visibly shaking. "What? Did you think I was _pretending_? Trust me Potter, if I was _pretending_ to be your friend I would have given up long ago. Being your friend is a freaking health hazard! Seriously, you need to warn people to take out life insurance first!" The desk she had been sitting on started to vibrate but Grace didn't notice. "You think I _wanted_ to go after the Philosopher's Stone? You think I _enjoyed_ risking my life getting through all those stupid tasks? Or what about the Chamber of Secrets? Do you think I went in there for _my benefit_?" All the desks were vibrating now as her rage just about peaked. Harry just stared at her at a loss for anything to say. "Let me tell you something Potter, I did those things for you. Okay? But apparently that doesn't mean anything."

By now practically the whole room was shaking. "But you know what? That's fine. I don't care anymore," she said and she stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her.

The next few weeks passed quite quickly but that might have been because Grace had a lot to keep her busy. She had Hermione back as a friend again now since Ron was accusing her cat of eating his rat. However this did mean that avoiding things like homework was a lot harder. One night they sat in the library doing their transfiguration homework and having what Grace missed most when she wasn't friends with Hermione: girl-talk.

"I mean I'm not asking him to spend every waking minute with me. It would just be nice if he…you know…looked up from his Quidditch notes every now and again. I don't know. Am I being selfish?"

"I don't think you're being selfish. Have you told him any of this?"

Grace added something else to her essay. "Not exactly. I mean I tried but all he wants to do is talk Quidditch, he won't even entertain the idea of taking about anything else. It's driving me insane."

"Well…you knew that the game was important to him from the start."

"Yeah, I did but…..oh I don't know. Maybe we just need to get out and do something. When's the next Hogsmeade weekend? Maybe we could go for a drink-"

She was cut off by the glare that Hermione was giving her. She had told her about what had happened over Christmas. "Hey," she said holding her hands up in surrender. "I didn't say it had to be an alcoholic drink, did I?"

Hermione gave her another look. "How are you doing with that by the way?"

Grace let out a deep breath; Hermione was way too perceptive for her own good. "Not brilliant," she admitted. "I still can't sleep….it's like my brain just refuses to turn off, you know? I'm craving a firewhiskey. I'm on such a short fuse all the time too. Harry's not helping. He just won't stop staring at me and it's driving me more insane than the Quidditch talk with Oliver."

Hermione looked over her essay once more and then rolled the parchment up.

"I think maybe he's starting to think that you were telling the truth," said Hermione quietly.

Grace shrugged and started playing with her necklace. "I don't know. What's worse is that I don't think I care anymore either."

"Grace, don't say that. Of course you care. You and Harry were best friends for two years. That doesn't just go away."

"So were you and Ron," replied Grace.

"That's not the same."

Grace laughed. "Hermione, it's _exactly_ the same."

A couple of nights later, Grace was sat by the fire in the common room with Oliver who was once again pouring over some Quidditch strategies. The rest of the team were there too, they had just had practise and Oliver wanted to go over some stuff with them. Grace had been just about bored to tears by his endless tips and ideas and blah blah blah…

When he had finished and the rest of the team had started up their own conversations, Grace decided to try out her idea.

"Hey Oliver, it's still early do you want to take a break from this," she said gesturing to the notes in front of him. "We could go for a walk or something?"

"Hmmm? Maybe later Grace," he replied without even looking up.

"Or we could go into Hogsmeade for a bit? We haven't been in ages." He still hadn't looked up. "Or we could round up a few of the house elves and teach them how to square dance?"

"Yeah, okay Grace."

Grace sighed. "Right well I'm going," she said getting up. He didn't even reply. Grace gritted her teeth, grabbed her coat and climbed out of the portrait hole. She had gotten half way down the corridor before a voice stopped her.

"Oi! Wait for me."

Fred was coming out of the portrait hole and hurrying to where she stood.

"Fred? What are you doing?"

"You honestly think I would miss you teaching house elves how to square dance?" he said grinning.

"Well at least _someone_ was listening to me," she said continuing down the corridor while he followed her.

"Don't pay any attention to Oliver. He doesn't listen to anyone when he's in Quidditch mode."

"Yeah, well. I'm _supposed_ to be his girlfriend for Merlin's sake! And I think we've pretty much passed the 'not listening' stage and now we're entering the 'blatantly ignoring me' stage."

"_I_ wouldn't ignore you," Fred muttered so quietly that she almost didn't hear him.

"Fred is there a reason you're following me?" she said, turning to face him.

They had stopped walking now. Fred reached out to hold her hand.

"Tell me to stop and I will," he said.

She opened her mouth to do exactly that but then he was kissing her….and she was kissing him back. _It felt so good, so natural. She was kissing Fred Weasley. She wasn't even trying to stop it. Why wasn't she trying to stop it? If Oliver saw them…_

At the thought of Oliver, she pulled away abruptly.

"Fred….we can't…._I_ can't-"

"You're right. You need to go dump Oliver first. I understand, I'll wait here."

"No Fred. Stop it," she said shaking her head, in an attempt to clear it.

"Stop what?"

"This," she said pointing between them. "Oliver is your _friend_ Fred-"

"He'll get over it Grace. He's leaving at the end of the year anyway. I really like you Grace. You know I do."

"I can't do this right now," she said closing her eyes. "I can't do this to him. I'm sorry." With that she backed away from Fred and started off down the corridor quickly before he could call her back.

_How the hell had she let this happen? Everything was slipping away. Everything she had worked for. She didn't have anything left. She'd pushed Draco and Blaise away. Harry and Ron still weren't speaking to her. And now she'd ruined her relationship with Oliver and probably Fred too. What was wrong with her?_

Grace broke down. It was getting late now and nearly everyone was in their common rooms so the place was mostly deserted. She sat down on the floor with her back to the wall and started to cry. She didn't know how long she sat there, hugging her knees and sobbing into them before she heard footsteps. She knew she should move. She shouldn't be out this late but she just _couldn't_. What was the point?

"Grace? Is that you?" said a familiar voice. She couldn't even look up.

"Grace, what happened? Are you okay?"

She felt Remus Lupin kneel down beside her and gently pull one of her arms away so that she had no choice but to look up.

"I've ruined everything," she whispered, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"I'm sure that's not true," he said kindly but she just sobbed harder. "Come on," he said gently tugging her to her feet and leading her down the corridor. She didn't ask where he was taking her; she just let herself be led and eventually they reached his office. "Shall I make a drink?" he asked after sitting her down. She didn't answer so he set about making some tea anyway and only started talking again when he was sat next to her pouring the drinks.

"What's wrong, Grace," he said softly.

"Everything's slipping away. I've messed everything up and I don't know how to fix it. I had my dream job and I single-handedly _destroyed_ it…they're never going to forget what happened at the Christmas show, _ever_. I had some really good friends and I manage to lose most them _all_. How is that even possible? And I had a great…no….an _amazing_ boyfriend and I cheat on him! I must be pathologically insane! What's wrong with me? Why am I doing this to myself?"

Lupin just sat there listening to her. He didn't interrupt her until he was sure she had finished. Then he handed her the drink he had made her.

"Here, drink this. First of all, you are a smart, talented girl and you will figure out a way to _make_ them forget about what happened at Christmas. No, listen to me Grace," he said when she opened her mouth to argue. "You can get your friends back if you tried _talking_ to them instead of fighting with them in corridors and empty classrooms," he continued knowingly. "If they are really your friends, then they will listen to what you have to say. And as for your boyfriend….well if it is meant to be then it will work out."

"What if it doesn't?" she said in a small voice.

"Well then, you will have to believe that there is somebody better out there. Your still young Grace…what's the saying...there's always plenty more fish in the sea."

"It's not as easy as that though, is it?"

"No. No, it's not."


	11. Forgive and Forget

**Here's chapter 11 ...quite a few things happen in this chapter (even though it is a bit shorter than most of the others). But anyway hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: i think you should all know by now but i dont own harry potter.**

**Chapter 11 - Forgive and Forget **(….or not)

After that night, Grace spent a large amount of time avoiding people. She avoided Harry who looked like he wanted to say something to her every time she entered the same room as him. She avoided Lupin who she caught watching her at every opportunity probably looking for signs that she was going to break down again. But most of all, she avoided Fred who was proving to be very difficult to discourage.

In the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Grace sat in the front row cheering Oliver (and only Oliver) on very loudly and when they won, Grace was just as excited as everyone else.

Through the entire party that night in the Gryffindor common room, Grace never once left Oliver's side. She talked enthusiastically about the match with him and, for the first time in a long time, he was paying as much attention to her as she paid to him. This made her feel guiltier than ever. Just as she was debating whether or not anybody would notice if she put a little bit of rum in her drink (one drink wouldn't kill her after all), McGonagall came in and told them all that it was time to go to bed.

Grace went up to her dormitory gladly, got changed and snuck into the seventh-year boys' dormitory as usual. She crept into Oliver's bed and Oliver promptly put his arms around her, obviously having been expecting her.

She fell asleep almost instantly. She dreamt that she was wandering around the castle alone. It was pitch black and she looked around her nervously, shivering slightly. She didn't like it. She wanted to go. Suddenly Lupin appeared out of thin air reaching out a hand to her. "I'll help you," he said but it wasn't his voice. It sounded like Lucius Malfoy. Grace cringed away from him and turned quickly to run away. As she turned she bumped (quite literally) into someone else. Looking up she saw Fred looking down at her. "Come on," he said and she followed him without hesitation, only he was walking too fast for her. She couldn't keep up. She opened her mouth to yell after him-

"AAAARRGGGHHHH!"

Grace jerked awake. It took her a second to realise that the scream was not from her dream and then another second to recognise it as Ron Weasleys'. She got out of bed quickly, grabbed one of Oliver's jumpers and was pulling it over her pyjamas as she hurried down the stairs to the source of the commotion with Oliver and his friends close behind. Dimly she heard Oliver's friends asking what she had been doing there and a few comments about her being in his bed but she ignored them.

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron was yelling as she came into the common room. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

"What?" said Grace in disbelief. Ron turned to face her. He looked absolutely terrified, his face was pale under the freckles and his eyes were wide. He didn't look as if he had only had a nightmare.

"I'm telling you, he was here!"

"That's ridiculous, Weasley. How could he have got through the portrait hole?" said Professor McGonagall.

"Ask him! Ask him if he saw!"

Grace didn't even wait for him to finish, she beat McGonagall there. She stumbled out of the hole with the Professor who was looking at Grace as though this was all a joke that she was in on it.

"Sir Cadogan," said Grace, her voice trembling. "Did you just let a man into the tower?"

"Certainly, good lady!"

"You- you did?" said McGonagall stunned. "But- but the password!"

"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady. Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

Grace and McGonagall re-entered the common room slowly. Grace felt about ready to pass out. She met Harry's eyes as she stared blankly around the room and from his expression, she knew that he didn't blame her in the slightest for this. He knew that she wouldn't be involved in this.

She spent the rest of the night sat between Oliver and Fred (she tried to ignore the irony in that) waiting for news, alternating between fiddling with her necklace and biting her nails. Nobody seemed to know quite what to do or say so they mainly just sat in silence until Professor McGonagall came back to tell them that, once again, Sirius Black had escaped.

Over the next few days, a lot of things changed. Security became so much tighter, teachers became much stricter and, more importantly, after nearly six months of silence, Harry was talking to Grace again.

He had come to her the next morning to apologise but he made it look very hard. After several seconds of him opening and closing his mouth like a fish, he finally spoke.

"Listen, Grace-"

"Harry," she interrupted. "Just spit it out."

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did."

"No you shouldn't have."

"I should have listened to you."

"Well that would've been helpful."

"I- I know. Can you forgive me?" he said awkwardly.

"Wait, was that an apology?" she said raising one eyebrow. "That was quite possibly the worst apology I have ever heard. You even managed to do it without saying the word 'sorry'."

Harry looked at his shoes and didn't say anything. Grace waited for a minute, torturing him slightly before deciding that he had had enough.

"But aside from that. I understand Harry, I do. I would have been mad too," she said. "Apology accepted," she added brightly.

The next few weeks flew by. It was exam time and that meant that work was being piled on them. Hermione spent most of her time looking like she was about to burst into tears any minute. Grace was forced to miss the next Hogsmeade visit to spend the day in a detention with McGonagall to catch up with some of the work. Even Fred and George had been spotted working in the corner of the common room.

All in all, the Quidditch final came as a welcome distraction. The atmosphere in the crowd was electric. Grace watched the match intently and by the end, her voice was hoarse from cheering and shouting so much. She wanted Gryffindor to win as much as everyone else and when they did, she ran onto the pitch with everyone else. She hugged each member of the team at random but paused when she got to Fred.

"What? Don't I get a hug?" he said. Grace looked towards Oliver but he wasn't looking their way.

"Course you do," she said in a brave attempt at indifference. She reached up to hug him but as she put her arms around his neck, he put his around her waist lifting her clean off the ground.

"Fred!" she said indignantly.

"What?" he said innocently.

"Put. Me. Down," Grace hissed.

He laughed but did what she said. "Relax, Grace. We could blow up the Quidditch pitch around him and Oliver still wouldn't notice anything."

"That's not the point, Fred. And you know it."

"Hey, it's you that won't dump him. Not me."

Grace glared at him and went over to congratulate Katie without another word.

The next few days were tense. Grace couldn't look Oliver in the eyes anymore. She knew what she needed to do but he just seemed so _happy. _Even the exams hadn't spoilt his mood. Finally one night she couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey Grace. What's up?" he said as he entered the common room and spotted her sitting alone in one of the more secluded corners.

"Revising," she said shortly.

"You look like you need a break," he said with a smile.

"Can't, got an exam in the morning."

"Cheer up Grace. You'll do fine, don't worry about it," he said sitting next to her, still smiling.

"You know Oliver, not everyone can be as happy as you are over a stupid Quidditch game!"

"What are you talking about?"

Grace looked at him. He was staring at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Oliver….we need to talk."

It was the hardest conversation she had ever had. He was upset. She was upset. She didn't mention Fred though. Their relationship may be broken but she didn't need to ruin his friendship with Fred too. She told him the same thing that Fred had said to her, that he would be leaving at the end of the year and they wouldn't see each other anymore. She told him that they would both be moving on and it would be better for both of them if they broke up. He seemed to accept that and considering the circumstances, they parted on fairly good terms.

When they had finished talking, Oliver got up to go to bed and left the common room. She felt terrible. Surely, _surely_ if this was the right thing to do, she shouldn't feel this bad. Why did she feel so….so devastated? Grace saw, out of the corner of her eye, Fred moving in her direction and she got up without looking at him and all but ran to the girl's dormitories.

**Please review and let me know what you think! **


	12. Curiosity Killed the Cat

**This chapter took forever to write...mostly because I wanted it to be perfect...I don't know if I managed it but anyways...Thankyou to everyone that has reviewed, favourited or added this story to their alerts, it really does mean a lot!**

**Disclaimer: still only own Grace, Harry Potter and everyone else is JKs.**

**Chapter 12- Curiosity Killed the Cat **

It was after the last of her exams that Grace saw the minister and the two of his ministry people. As soon as she saw them her heart sank. She did _not_ need this right now. She was exhausted and very glad they were nearly at the end of the school year; it had been a long one.

"Ah Grace, I was hoping I would run into you," said Fudge warmly when he spotted her.

Grace eyed the other two men. One looked incredibly ancient (and was probably older than Dumbledore) while the other was looking at her with an evil glint in his eye. It was when Fudge moved towards her to greet her properly that she noticed that the man was playing with an axe. _So this was Buckbeaks' executioner_, Grace's eyes narrowed.

"How have you been?" said Fudge.

"I'm good. What are you doing here?" Grace replied innocently.

"Oh, it's well….it's a nasty matter actually," he answered, clearly not wanting to talk about it with her.

"I can see that," Grace said with a pointed look at the man's axe.

"We are here to deal with the mad hippogriff, Grace. Surely you have heard about it, the event occurred in one of your classes after all."

"And by 'deal with' do you mean kill?" she said shortly.

"The hippogriff is dangerous, we have an obligation to keep you students safe," Fudge said, all the warmth now gone from his voice.

Grace opened her mouth to retort but then stopped. She noticed Lupin standing at the bottom of the staircase behind the minister. He shook his head subtly and then gestured for her to follow before he started walking slowly up the stairs.

"I have to go," she said taking the hint.

Fudge seemed taken aback by her abruptness but then smiled. "Of course, I suppose your friends are waiting for you."

Grace just nodded and hurried up the stairs to catch up with Lupin. She didn't speak until the minister was out of sight.

"What was that?"

"Do you really think that it is wise to pick a fight with the minister for magic?" he said raising an eyebrow at her.

"It wouldn't exactly be the first time," she muttered.

Lupin looked at her strangely. It was the way he had looked at her when he had first met her; as though he wasn't really seeing her anymore, almost as if he wasn't even there with her anymore. They walked together in silence for a little longer before Lupin said goodbye and hastily took off in the direction of the staff room.

Grace however continued on to the common room to meet Harry, Ron and Hermione so they could go down to dinner together.

"Grace, there you are!" said Harry when she got there. She was surprised to see that he had his invisibility cloak with him. Everyone kind of looked on edge as well. Grace knew that look, it was the look they got whenever they were about to do something stupid and potentially dangerous.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"We're going down to Hagrid's after dinner," explained Hermione. "He can't be alone right now. He needs us."

"And the cloak's for….."

"You know they won't let us go what with….erm…. well you know," said Ron awkwardly. Apparently they still didn't like talking about Sirius Black in front of her.

Harry headed for the portrait hole. "You coming with us or not?" he said.

"No."

Harry stopped and turned back to her in shock.

"What?"

"I'm not coming."

"Why not?" said Harry confused. Both Ron and Hermione were looking at her disbelievingly too; Grace had never refused to do anything that involved breaking the rules before. She was usually the first one out the door.

"Harry, I really don't think it's a good idea."

"Grace, Hagrid needs us."

"I just don't want to watch Buckbeak being killed or is that too hard for you to understand?"

Harry's expression softened. "No, it's not. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

Grace watched them leave, Harry tucking the cloak under his shirt as they went, preparing to sneak out of the castle at the first opportunity. It felt weird being left behind. She wanted to be there for Hagrid but she just _couldn't_. She knew that going down there would not help Buckbeak… or even Hagrid that much.

Grace skipped dinner; preferring to wait in the common room alone. After everyone had gone down to the Great Hall she had gone to her dormitory and brought down a bottle of firewhiskey that she had kept. The bottle was sitting, unopened, on the table in front of her. It was _staring_ at her, _daring_ her to drink it.

No matter how much she told herself that it was all in her head, that she didn't _need_ to drink it like her whole body was telling her that she did, she couldn't help feeling like she was fighting a losing battle. Several times she reached out to the bottle before re-crossing her arms.

"I can do this," she kept muttering to herself. "I don't need it. I _don't_ need it."

"No you don't."

She had been concentrating so hard on the firewhiskey in front of her that she hadn't even heard him come in. _Great_, she thought. _Of all the people that could have walked in on her, it had to be him. _However, when she turned around, she found that she was wrong. It _wasn't_ him. But it was his brother.

George Weasley came and sat next to her. "Has the bottle talked back yet?" he asked jokingly.

"Not yet," she sighed turning back to the bottle.

"What are you doing up here, all alone? Where is Harry, Ron and Hermione? I thought you were all best friends again."

"They went out."

"And you didn't go with them?"

"Didn't want to."

"No. I'm sure sitting up here talking to alcohol is a much better pastime than being with your friends," he said with a smirk.

Grace just shrugged. That bottle was suddenly becoming much more appealing to her.

"Grace? Can I ask you a question?"

She tore her gaze away from the firewhiskey to look at him.

"Fred really likes you."

"That's not a question," she observed.

"I'm not finished. He really likes you and you really like him. So what's the problem? Why don't you want to be with him?"

"I don't think that's any of your business," she said curtly, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't think _that's_ any of your business either," she said before leaving the common room and George behind.

_Everyone would be coming back from dinner about now anyway_, she reasoned with herself as she realised that, in her haste to get away from George, she had left the firewhiskey in the common room. _You can't drink in peace with a room full of nosy students._

Grace wandered the castle for quite a while before she thought that enough time had passed that she would be able to get out onto the grounds without passing anybody in the entrance hall. It was nearly curfew time so that meant very few people would be out of their common rooms now. She didn't give much thought to how she would get back into the castle afterwards. If she was lucky she would bump into Harry with his invisibility cloak on their way back from Hagrids', if she wasn't…..well she would cross that bridge when she got to it.

She liked the Hogwarts' grounds at night. It was so peaceful. There was nobody there to stare at her as if she was an alien or glare at her as if _she_ was a mass murderer. She sat down on the grass, her back leaning against a tree and her eyes closed. She wondered if anyone would notice if she just spent the night there, it was very relaxing with the wind blowing softly to keep her from getting too warm and the odd star glinting at her from behind the clouds and the sound of footsteps…..wait _footsteps_? Who would possibly be out at this time?

Grace shrank back into the shadows and looked in the direction that she thought she had heard the footsteps. Sure enough, after a couple of seconds she saw Severus Snape running towards the Whomping Willow. He stopped and grabbed a branch from the floor. He jabbed into the trunk of the tree as she watched and the tree suddenly froze as though he had just cast a spell on it. He disappeared under it and Grace waited for him to re-appear. Only he didn't.

After waiting for a few minutes, Grace thought it was safe to venture slightly closer. She edged towards the tree, making sure that she was still hidden in case Snape decided to jump back out on her. However, when she got to the tree, he wasn't there. _That's impossible_, she thought. How many times had Hermione told her that you can't apparate or dissapparate anywhere in the grounds? He must be there somewhere….

As she looked closer, she noticed the small, black hole at the foot of the trees' trunk. _That must be it. _Grace studied the tree, it appeared to still be frozen and she approached it cautiously. After several wary steps forward, Grace raced to the opening in the ground, not taking any chances and sure enough, just as she jumped into the hole, she heard the sounds of the trees' branches swiping violently around again.

Grace looked around. She was in some kind of tunnel and she sped onward as quietly as she could. What was Snape up to? Why would he come here?

When she entered the derelict house, Grace didn't know what to think. This was something big, she could feel it but she didn't know what and that made her apprehensive. What was going on?

Just as she spotted the marks in the dust leading away from her, she heard Hermione's scream. She followed the sound of voices upstairs. When she entered the room, she was met by a strange sight. Lupin was tied up on the floor, Ron was clutching his leg and looked as though he was in quite a lot of pain, Hermione looked scared out of her wits, Snape had his wand out and was looking particularly triumphant about something and Harry was looking intensely at something behind Snape.

"What the-" Everyone turned to look at Grace as she stepped a little further into the room. It was only then that she spotted the other person in the room. Sirius Black. Her father. Harry's godfather. The murderer.

**Originally I was going to write all of it in one chapter but then as I typed that last bit, I thought it would be better to end it here but you won't have to wait long for the next one...I'm already a good way through it! **


	13. Mr Morality

**See told you it wouldn't take long! Haha I loved writing this chapter it has to be one of favourite scenes in all the books mostly because Sirius is one of my favourite characters!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!**

**Chapter 13 – Mr Morality**

"What the hell is going on?" Grace demanded.

"Stay where you are!" ordered Snape, his wand still pointing at Sirius' heart while Sirius only had eyes for Grace.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape said turning back to Sirius. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you…."

"The joke's on you again, Severus," snarled Sirius still not looking away from his daughter. His voice was harsh but his eyes were still searching her face. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle, I'll come quietly…."

Grace glanced at Ron who looked as confused as she felt. What was he talking about? Why did he want Ron's rat? Was he really as insane as everyone had said?

"Up to the castle?" replied Snape silkily. I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black….pleased enough to give you a little kiss I daresay…"

Sirius tore his gaze away from Grace.

"You – you've got to here me out-"

"Come on, all of you," commanded Snape but Grace didn't move and neither did the others. Sirius turned back to Grace, his eyes pleading.

"I didn't do it, I _swear_ to you…"

Grace shook her head slowly. "A _street_ full of people _saw_ you…"

Snape smirked. "Look Black, even your own daughter doesn't believe you."

"Gracie-"

Grace blinked. "What did you just call me?" she breathed.

Hermione took a very uncertain step forward.

"Professor Snape – it – it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?" _Why was Hermione sticking up for them? _

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school. You are all out of bounds in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue." _Werewolf?_ Grace looked at Lupin.

"But if – if there was a mistake…"

"KEEP QUIET YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape exploded. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

A few sparks shot out from his wand which was still very close to Sirius' face. That was enough for Grace. She moved around Snape and stepped in front of her father. Her wand was out and she stared defiantly back at Snape who looked quite deranged.

"_Move now_," he hissed threateningly.

"No," said Grace. "I'm with Hermione; I want to hear what they have to say."

"I'm warning you…" His wand was now pointing at her and for a second, she honestly thought that he was going to curse her where she stood but then Harry moved towards them. He stood on the other side of Snape, blocking the door and pointing his own wand at the professor.

"Get out of it Potter," spat Snape. "If I hadn't been there to save your skin-"

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN-"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape bellowed back. "I just saved your neck, you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he had killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black! In either of them! Now get out of the way or I will make you!"

Both Harry and Grace moved at the same time.

"Expelliarmus!"

The shout had come from four different parts of the room, not only had Harry and Grace said the spell but Hermione and Ron had too. Snape rose from the ground and was blasted back into a wall, which he slid down and then slumped at the bottom of. He didn't move again; he had been knocked out.

Sirius bent over Lupin to untie him and Grace moved to go stand beside Harry.

"You shouldn't have done that," Sirius said. Grace looked at Harry, refusing to meet Sirius' eyes. Harry returned her glance, she knew that he wasn't sure if he had done the right thing and she tried to let him know that she was as unsure as he was.

"Thank you," said Lupin, standing up.

"I'm still not saying that I believe you," said Harry.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof," said Sirius. "You, boy – give me Peter. Now."

Grace glanced at Ron again. "Okay, I think someone needs to catch me up," she said.

Lupin took a deep breath. "It all started when I became a werewolf-"

"No offense, Professor, but can I get the shorthand version?"

"These two nut jobs think that Scabbers is Pettigrew!" said Ron.

"Come again?" said Grace.

"Peter is an unregistered animagus, just like Sirius and James. They learned how to do it while they were in school to keep me company when I transformed into a wolf," explained Lupin. "Peter could turn into a rat."

"And you think that rat is Scabbers?"

"I don't _think_, I know," said Sirius.

"Come off it!" said Ron looking around at the others for support.

"Hang on a minute," said Grace looking at Sirius. "Say Pettigrew could turn into a rat – there's got to be millions of rats. What makes you think it's this one?"

"You know, Sirius, That's a fair question," Lupin frowned. "How did you find out where he was?"

Sirius pulled out a piece of paper and explained how Fudge had given him the paper on his last inspection and he had recognised Peter straight away. Grace half-glanced at Harry again.

"Of course," Lupin was saying. "So simple…so _brilliant_….he cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," answered Sirius. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with his wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself – and sped down into the sewer with the other rats…"

_This was insane. But in a crazy, insane way….it kind of made sense. Scabbers had been acting strange ever since last summer….about the same time Sirius broke out of Azkaban. If Peter was the one that betrayed Harry's parents….if Sirius had been the one to track Peter down instead of the other way around…._

As the pieces began to fit together in Grace's mind, the others had continued talking. It wasn't until Harry started yelling again that Grace broke out of her trance.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE! HE WAS THEIR SECRET KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP, HE SAID THAT HE KILLED THEM!"

"Harry….I as good as killed them. I persuaded James and Lily to use Peter as their secret keeper. The night they died…I'd arranged to check on Peter. When he wasn't there – I knew something was wrong so I went to your parents' house. I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies….I knew what Peter had done, what I had done."

"Enough of this," said Lupin. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."

Grace watched as Lupin went over to Ron but Ron still didn't look convinced.

"What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" he asked tensely.

"Ron, just give them the _rat_," said Grace impatiently.

He hesitated but at long last, he handed over Scabbers to Lupin. Sirius and Lupin raised their wands. A flask of blue-white light erupted from both wands, Scabbers froze and then hit the floor. Barely half a second passed and there was another flash of light and then Scabbers the rat transformed into a short, slightly balding man.

It was one of the weirdest things Grace had ever seen and she spoke before she could stop herself.

"Holy _crap_!" she gasped in complete shock. It was one thing considering the possibility that Pettigrew was alive but it was quite another to see him appear right in front of her. She stepped forward slightly, her mouth hanging open as she studied the man that her father had supposedly killed.

"Well, hello Peter! Long time, no see!" said Lupin from beside her as Grace was now standing in between Lupin and Sirius.

"S-Sirius….R-Remus…." Peter squeaked. "My friends...my old friends…"

Sirius started toward him but Lupin reached across Grace to stop him.

"Remus…you don't believe him, do you? He tried to kill me, Remus…He's come back to finish the job!"

Peter's eyes darted around the room. He looked suspiciously like a trapped man that had been cornered. He kept looking at the boarded up windows and then to the door which Harry was still stood in front of.

"No one's going to try and kill you until we have sorted a few things out," Lupin told him.

"Sorted things out!" said Peter, wringing his hands nervously. "I knew he'd come after me!" he pointed at Sirius, his eyes still staring around the room wildly. "I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"You knew he was going to break out of Azkaban? When nobody has ever done it before?" asked Grace sceptically.

"He has dark powers that we could only dream of!" Peter shouted shrilly. "How else did he get here?"

"You know I'll never understand why we didn't see that you were the spy from the start! You always like big friends who would take of you, didn't you? It used to be me and Remus and James…." Sirius sneered.

Peters' face was whiter than chalk. He kept muttering distractedly as Sirius spoke.

"It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."

"I- I don't know what you mean, Sirius! I never hurt a hair on Harry's head! Why should I?"

"I'll tell you why," growled Sirius. "Because you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for. You weren't going to commit a murder in front of Dumbledore's nose for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all his powers, were you? Why else would you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you Peter? Just in case your old master returned to strength…"

"Er…Mr Black….Sirius?" said Hermione timidly. "If you don't mind me asking, how – how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?"

Sirius frowned and then explained all about how he would transform into a dog when things became too much, how knowing that he was innocent had helped him remember who he was and how he had had something to focus on when he found out that Peter was at Hogwarts. Everything he said made complete sense and it even explained a few things too.

"Believe me," he said looking at Harry. "Believe me. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

Harry nodded slowly and Sirius turned to face Grace.

"Gracie? Please believe me."

Grace looked her father in the eyes and somehow she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was telling the truth.

"I believe you," she whispered.

"NO!" screamed Peter throwing himself on the floor and startling Grace. Sirius stepped in front of her.

"Sirius – it's me…it's Peter...your friend….you wouldn't…." he grovelled.

"There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," said Sirius.

"Grace…..beautiful, kind girl….don't let him do this to me…."

"Don't you _dare_…" threatened Sirius darkly, while Grace glared at him with mounting dislike.

"Remus!" said Peter backing away from them and scurrying over to Lupin instead. "You don't believe this….wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy," said Lupin calmly.

Peter scrambled over to Ron for support. "Haven't I been a good friend….a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you?"

"If you made a better rat than human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Black harshly as Ron turned away.

"Sweet girl…clever girl," said Peter now clutching Hermione's robes. "Help me…"

Hermione backed away to the wall looking horrified.

"Harry! Harry…you look just like your father…just like him…..he wouldn't have wanted me killed…..James would have understood-"

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Sirius. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

Sirius and Lupin grabbed hold of Peter and pulled him away from Harry.

"Please…" Peter begged. "Please…he made me…he forced me to do it!"

"DON'T LIE! YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED!"

"But what was there to be gained by refusing him?"

"Only innocent lives, Peter!" Sirius spat.

"You don't understand! He would have killed me, Sirius!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" shouted Sirius furiously. "AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

"You should have realised, Peter," said Lupin who, in contrast to Sirius, spoke very quietly. "If Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Goodbye Peter."

"NO!" shouted Harry. He rushed in front of Pettigrew, grabbing Grace and pulling her with him so that they both stood in the way of Sirius and Lupin. "You can't kill him…you can't."

Sirius and Lupin looked staggered but they weren't the only ones.

"Why not?" said Grace looking at Harry as though he had lost his mind. "I'm with them. I think we should kill him."

"This coming from the person who couldn't stand to watch a hippogriff be killed," replied Harry.

"That was different. _Buckbeak _didn't deserve it," she said.

"It's wrong, Grace and you know it." He looked at her intently for a minute. Nobody else even moved except Peter who looked as if he was having some kind of panic attack.

Grace groaned. "Fine," she said half-heartedly. She moved slightly so that she was completely shielding Peter behind her although she didn't look entirely happy about it.

Sirius and Lupin stared at the two of them.

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," said Sirius. "Think….think about what he did…."

"He can go to Azkaban. If anyone deserves that place, he does…" said Harry.

"Very well," said Lupin finally. "Harry, Grace, stand aside."

Harry didn't move and as he still had hold of Grace's arm, neither did she.

"I'm going to tie him up. That's all, I swear," said Lupin.

"But if you transform, Peter," growled Sirius. "We _will_ kill you. You two agree?"

"Hey, don't look at me," said Grace. "Ask Mr Morality over here."

Harry looked at Pettigrew and then nodded.

**So what do you think? Let me know...**


	14. Crack of Sunlight

**And here's chapter 14...took me forever to write it so I hope it's okay :-)**

**Disclaimer: if I owned Harry Potter I really wouldn't be on this site...**

**Chapter 14 – Crack of Sunlight**

Lupin organised the group and then they were on their way. Crookshanks was in the lead, and then Lupin, Peter and Ron (all tied together to stop Peter from escaping), next came Snape floating eerily about a foot from the ground, then Harry and Hermione and at the back was Grace and Sirius.

Grace and Sirius walked for quite a while before either of them said anything. _What did you say to somebody that you hardly knew?_ Apparently, Sirius was having the same problem.

"I missed you," he whispered eventually, so quietly that Grace almost missed it.

"I missed you too, Daddy," she said softly back. His face lit up at the word 'daddy' and he seemed to take courage from it.

"So…" he said obviously casting his mind around for something to talk about. His eyes fell on Harry. "You and Harry seem…close…."

"What?" she said puzzled before it clicked what he was talking about. "No!"

Everybody who was physically able to turn around to stare at them did. Grace waited for them to continue down the tunnel before she turned back to him. He had a massive grin on his face. "It is _not_ like that," she said in a much lower voice and very conscious of the fact that Harry was walking all of three feet away from them. "Me and Harry are just friends, that's all, and we haven't even been _that_ for most of the year."

Sirius' grin faded. "I guess that's my fault." He looked down, not realising that while they had been talking, Snape had floated a little higher and his head was now scraping the ceiling.

"No," she replied firmly and shaking her head. "No, we would only have found something else to argue about," she said with a faint smile.

His own smile reappeared slightly. "You are exactly like your mother," he said. "I see you've kept that safe." He pointed to her necklace and Grace's hand flew unconsciously up to it. She looked away from Sirius; she never talked about her mum, not to anybody. She had taken on her mum's last name and had never taken off the necklace that she had given Grace when she had been a baby but she never spoke about her. _Why drag up the past? What was the point?_

Luckily for Grace, she was saved from the conversation by Harry dropping back and talking to Sirius. They were talking about Harry moving in with Sirius and Grace wondered vaguely if it was expected that she would be living with Sirius too. She didn't quite know how she felt about that….maybe she could ask him if he wouldn't mind living in her house, she had spent a lot of time fixing it up and it wasn't like it wasn't big enough for them. Deciding that she would think about it later, she climbed out of the tunnel.

For a few minutes everything was normal (or as normal as it could have been). They began their walk across the grounds towards the castle but then everyone stopped. Grace saw Lupin's outline shake.

"He hasn't taken his potion tonight! He's not safe!" she heard Hermione shriek.

"Run," said Sirius.

But both Harry and Grace had seen Ron. He was still tied to Lupin who was now beginning to change. They started forward together but Sirius held them back.

"Dad!" shouted Grace.

"I'll take care of it," he said. "Now run!"

Grace, Harry and Hermione backed up as Sirius changed into a dog and charged at Lupin who had ripped himself away from Peter and Ron. Grace was too busy watching the werewolf snap at her dad to notice what any of the other people were doing until Harry yelled.

"Sirius! Peter's gone!"

Peter had stolen one of the wands, cast a spell at Ron, then transformed and ran away into the trees. Lupin went at Sirius again, teeth bared. Sirius retaliated and snapped back at Lupin. The fight between the two massive animals continued and steadily moved away from them so that they were able to get to Ron. They lent down over him.

"What did he do to him?" asked Hermione.

Harry shook his head. "I dunno…"

Then they heard it. The sound that stopped Grace's heart. It was a strangled cry coming from the lake just around the trees. Sirius was in trouble. Grace didn't even think about it. She ran after the sound. Harry and Hermione followed quickly after her.

When they got through the trees, the cold hit them. It went right through Grace and seized her heart. Her breath caught in her chest and she saw the black shadows surround them.

"DAD!"

He had changed back into the man and he was lying face down on the ground. They ran over to him.

"Dad! Daddy?" she said turning him over so that he was on his back. "Wake up! Please wake up…"

"Expecto patronum!" shouted Harry behind her. "Hermione, Grace! Help me!"

Grace couldn't tear her gaze away from Sirius' face. She kept shaking him as the dementors closed in around them, calling to him and begging him to wake up. Hermione was fading fast beside her while Harry was still attempting to conjure a patronus. Hermione fell and Harry's voice became very distant. Grace's vision was starting to get blurry, she knew she should be trying to help Harry but she couldn't pick herself up. Soon after Hermione, Grace fell too.

When she woke up, Grace was in the Hospital Wing. She looked around; the room was very dark and the moonlight streaming through the open windows cast long shadows on the walls. It was only when she noticed the others in the beds around her that she remembered why she was in the Hospital Wing. She shot up.

"Ah Miss Blackseyer, Your awake!" said Madam Promfrey coming out of her office.

"Where are they?" Grace demanded.

"Where are who?"

"Where's my dad?"

Madam Promfrey looked at Grace pityingly. "Don't worry, they've got him. The minister and the headmaster are with him now."

"Where?" Grace repeated.

"I think they are using Professor Flitwick's office, why do you ask? _Grace Blackseyer, what do you think you are doing?_"

But Grace didn't even hear her. She had darted out of the room and down the corridor. Sprinting through the empty castle, she came to Flitwick's office and threw the door open to reveal Sirius, Dumbledore, Fudge, Snape, Macnair and a few dementors stationed around the room.

"Grace! Shouldn't you be in the Hospital Wing?" said Fudge.

"Minister you can't do this!"

"Now, now Grace. Calm down. You've been through a lot tonight and you really shouldn't be here. Macnair, can you escort Miss Blackseyer back to the…"

"NO! You're not listening! He's innocent!"

Dumbledore strode over to her and put his hands on both her shoulders. "Calm yourself," he said quietly but Grace fought against him too, struggling to get out of his grasp.

"You don't understand! He didn't do it! He didn't…"

"Stop," Dumbledore muttered. It was an order and his voice held such power that Grace did stop. She looked up at him and saw that he was staring back at her intently, he looked like he was trying to tell her something but she couldn't understand.

Grace looked around the room and then suddenly an idea popped into her head. She looked at Fudge again.

"I want to say goodbye."

"You want to what?" said Snape sharply.

"I want to say goodbye," she repeated still looking at Fudge. "I never got the chance before…"

"You have got to be joking," sneered Snape. "You'd never met the man before tonight and now you want to say _goodbye_?" He turned to Fudge. "She obviously still confused Minister. We can't allow this-"

"I will stay with her, Cornelius, if that makes you feel safer," offered Dumbledore.

After a long minute, Fudge agreed and everybody except Grace, Sirius and Dumbledore left the room. As soon as the door clicked shut, Grace rounded on the professor.

"You have to believe me, please professor. Pettigrew, he's alive, I saw him! He's a rat, well, he's not actually a rat but he can turn into one and he's been living with Ron and his family and what?"

Dumbledore had risen his hand to get her to stop talking. When she did he turned to Sirius who slowly got to his feet. Grace went over and stood beside her father while he told Dumbledore the same story that he had told them in the shrieking shack although, explaining it slightly better than Grace did. Dumbledore didn't speak until he had finished.

"You believe us, don't you professor?" asked Grace.

"Yes," he answered.

"Good," said Grace relieved. "So what are we going to do?"

"Grace, there's no evidence to support your story…" started Dumbledore sadly.

"Of course there's evidence! There five people who all saw Pettigrew alive, how is that not evidence?"

"Yes, but nobody is going to believe the story of four teenagers and a werewolf," he replied gently.

"So…we – we aren't going to do anything?" Grace said in a low voice, she was glaring at the headmaster but then Sirius turned her to face him.

"Gracie, you don't need to do anything for me. You believe me, you know the truth. And that is more important to me than anything else. Besides, isn't this the wrong way round? It's supposed to be my job to take care of _you_; it's not your job to protect me."

"THE HELL IT ISN'T! There is absolutely no way that I am letting this happen," Grace practically roared at them both. "There has to be something we can do, we can't let this happen!"

"What we need is more time," said Dumbledore calmly.

Grace blinked and then took a very deep breath to stop herself from throttling the old man. "Yes," she started in a would-be calm voice. "More time would be fantastic but as it stands-" All of a sudden, her eyes went wide, she had realised what he had meant. Sirius bent over her concerned but she waved him impatiently away. "You don't…..you _can't_ mean…you do realise exactly how illegal that is, don't you?"

Dumbledore didn't reply and Sirius looked from one to the other confused but Grace was still following her own train of thought. _Even if they used the time turner, it would still be close to impossible…..unless she could even out their chances slightly…._

Grace turned back to Sirius. "I'll see you really soon, daddy," she whispered as she hugged him tightly. It was strange; before that night she would have said that she didn't need a father, that she had gotten along perfectly fine without one but now …..she couldn't seem to let him go. Sirius still looked very confused but he kissed the top of her head and then put his arms around her.

Reluctantly she pulled away and turned back to Dumbledore. "You're going to fill in the others aren't you?"

He nodded. "Where are you going?"

She went over to the door. "I'm going to go buy us even more time," she said before walking out of the room.

Half an hour later, Grace was still sobbing into Fudge's shoulder. Luckily for her, Fudge seemed to accept that she would be upset because she hadn't really thought it through. Every time he went to go check on Sirius, she just wailed louder and started talking to him. What she was saying wasn't comprehensible (most of it weren't even real words) but Fudge seemed to buy it and he would come back to comfort her. Meanwhile Snape was getting more and more worked up, so much so that occasionally Grace found it very difficult to keep up her 'crying'. Eventually though, he snapped.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" he said through gritted teeth and he stormed over to the door to open it.

_Here we go, _thought Grace_. Three, two, one…_

"NO!" roared Snape. Everybody rushed into the room behind him.

"Where- where is he?" stuttered Fudge looking around the room frantically. Snape however, turned to Grace.

"You know," he said towering over her. "What did you do?"

"What did _I_ do? Hello…..I've been with you," she said standing her ground.

"You know something, I know you do and you are going to tell me right now you little slut or I swear I am going to-"

"Severus, that is enough," said Dumbledore sharply. "You know that Grace can't possibly have done anything."

"Maybe not but Potter did…" Snape stormed off towards the Hospital Wing, followed by Fudge and Dumbledore.

"Well this should be fun," muttered Grace before hurrying after them.

**So there is lots more Sirius/Grace interaction in this chapter so let me know what you think. Next chapter should be here soon...**


	15. No Going Back

**So here's another chapter and before I forget I just wanted to explain something about the last chapter that was pointed out to me in a review, Snape does get very _very _angry at Grace and maybe it was a bit harsh but I think that at that point he was beyond reason, I don't think he actually meant it when he called her a slut. Also where Harry has the fact that he reminds Snape a bit of Lily, Grace just reminds him of Sirius who continues to insult him which doesn't help. Okays so now on with the next chapter...**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own HP, wish I did though...**

**Chapter 15 – No Going Back…**

Needless to say Snape couldn't prove that Harry or Grace had anything to do with Sirius Black escaping again but it was funny to watch…until he took it out on Lupin the next morning by telling everyone that Lupin was a werewolf. Grace was furious but she couldn't take back what he had said, any more than she could take back Lupin's resignation.

On the same day that Lupin resigned, Grace was summoned to Dumbledore's office. She wondered what she had done wrong now and was surprised when she entered the office and found Lupin in there too.

"Grace, please sit down," said Dumbledore gesturing to the empty seat next to Lupin. She glanced at him as she sat but he looked like he had no more idea about why they were there than she did.

"What's going on Professor?" she asked very curious now.

"Well, I have just been speaking to the minister about your…living situation," he replied.

That caught her attention. "My what?"

"He seems to think that you can't handle living alone any longer and would like to make alternate arrangements."

Grace stared at the headmaster. "He can't do that," she said shaking her head. "He can't, we had a deal. We had a contract for crying out loud!"

"The contract only stood for as long as you proved able to look after yourself," Dumbledore explained. "The minister feels that the…..events with your father, though not your fault, showed that you are not mature enough yet to live without a guardian."

"That's crap!" she shouted. "I'm not going back to that hole of an orphanage…..there's no way…."

"Actually that wasn't quite his suggestion," said Dumbledore clearly choosing to ignore her language.

Grace felt the hot tears fill her eyes as she grasped exactly what Fudge had suggested. He wanted her to move back in with the Malfoys. Everything came flooding back to her, all the thoughts and memories she had pushed away and tried to forget. The day Lucius had come to pick her up from the orphanage, the first time he had hit her, the night after she had stood up for the Weasleys in Diagon Alley, the look on their faces when she packed her bags and left, the thought of what that Boggart would turn into in Lupin's first class…..

"No…." Her voice was hardly above a whisper. "I can't…I _can't_ go back there….I…." She couldn't believe this was happening to her. How hard had she worked to afford her own place to live? And then, how hard had she had to fight to get the freedom she needed to live in it?

Dumbledore surveyed her slowly. "Fortunately he and I discussed it and we came to an agreement."

Grace took a deep breath before she spoke, still fighting the tears that were threatening to fall. "What kind of agreement?" she asked.

"Well, I agreed that you need a guardian but he agreed that we would be able to choose who that guardian should be," he said.

"Oh yeah?" she said half-heartedly. "And who do you suppose we should pick?"

"I was hoping that was where you come in, Remus," Dumbledore said with a smile and inviting Lupin, who had been watching the exchange, into the conversation for the first time.

"Me?" said Lupin.

"Yes, Remus, you," said Dumbledore. "You are Grace's godfather after all."

"Hang on a minute, you're my godfather?" said Grace in disbelief. She was beginning to get how Harry had felt when he had found out about Sirius.

Lupin looked at Grace guiltily. "Yes, James chose Sirius to be Harry's godfather and then Sirius chose me to be yours," he explained. "But Albus, be reasonable, I can't adopt her now for the same reasons I couldn't adopt her after Sirius was arrested. Grace you have to understand…I'm a werewolf. I'm not safe to be around-"

"Remus that is ridiculous. You know that with the Wolfsbane Potion you are no more dangerous than you are now and if it is going to be an issue, I'm sure that Grace has friends to stay with during the full moon. Over the next few years, she will be here at Hogwarts for the majority of the year anyway."

"But I don't have any money or the resources to look after her right now-"

"Maybe not, but Grace does."

Both Grace and Lupin looked at the aging man in shock. Grace thought about it. _Maybe this could work….She needed a guardian to keep everyone happy while Lupin technically just lost his job, he obviously would need some help…._ Lupin, on the other hand, looked appalled.

"Are you suggesting that I live off Grace's money?" he said flatly.

"Well, it wouldn't be like you're using me," said Grace fairly. "You would be giving me something too."

"Grace, that's not the point. Money shouldn't be the reason that you adopt a child!"

"No, Remus, you're right," interrupted Dumbledore. "I was not suggesting that you should adopt Grace because of her financial situation, I was merely stating that that yours should not be a reason against it either. I think I am right in assuming that Grace would be reluctant to leave her present accommodation and as you are about to leave yours, it would simply be the more convenient option that you would move in with her. Now unless you have any other objections, I propose a trial period."

Grace smiled at his choice of words; that was what she had asked for at her ministry hearing.

Grudgingly, Lupin agreed to the trial period on the condition that somehow they worked out a way in which he could pay Grace back. Grace left Dumbledore's office feeling cautiously optimistic. If Lupin adopted her officially, she wouldn't have to worry about the Malfoys or the ministry taking everything away from her anymore.

By the time she got to the Gryffindor common room she was in quite a good mood – until she got inside that is.

"YOU STOLE MY GIRLFRIEND!"

"SHE WASN'T YOURS TO BEGIN WITH!"

"Is that what you two told yourselves?"

"HEY! It's not my fault you couldn't make her happy!"

"AND YOU THINK YOU CAN, DO YOU?"

"OI!" Grace screamed to get their attention. Fred and Oliver were standing in the middle of the common room, squaring up to each other and what seemed like every student in the tower was watching, expecting a fight. "What is going on?"

Oliver turned away from her in disgust. "Oliver?" she said taking a step toward him.

"Don't," he said not looking at her. "Just don't."

"This isn't her fault," said Fred defensively.

"Oh of course not! She was completely innocent, was she? Tell me Grace, did you kiss him back?"

Whatever she was expecting from him, it wasn't that. She didn't answer; partly because she knew the answer would hurt him but mostly because she seemed to have lost her voice. Oliver, however, didn't appear to need an answer. He turned back to Fred.

"Did you sleep with her? Go on, you can tell me now. There's no point hiding it anymore."

"No, like I told you before, we kissed and that was it," replied Fred.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that? You are a liar Weasley and she's a slut, I can't believe I didn't see it before!"

"You didn't see it before because there was nothing there before!" exclaimed Grace having finally found her voice. "We kissed once, that really was it! Yes it was wrong and we shouldn't have done it but what do you want me to say, Oliver? I can't exactly take it back!"

"Is that why you broke up with me, Grace?" Oliver said looking at her. "Are you with him now?"

"No, Oliver. It wasn't like that!" said Grace desperately.

"I hope you two are happy together," he spat before exiting the room.

"I think he took it pretty well," said Fred trying to lighten the mood as George and Lee Jordan dispersed the crowd that had gathered.

"_Are you insane?_ What is wrong with you?"

"What?"

"Why would you tell him? How could you do that to him? To me?"

"Personally, Grace, I think he deserved to know the truth," he said. "But I didn't tell him, I thought you did."

"What?"

"Well, I knew you didn't want to, so I didn't tell him," he replied simply.

"Somebody did," Grace said. "Look, it doesn't matter anyway. Like I told you before, _this isn't going to happen._ Let me make this very clear for you Fred because I'm only going to say this once more, I said _no_! So you can stop it, okay? It's never going to happen so just get over it."

Grace strode over to the girl's dormitories without even glancing back at Fred to see just how hurt he looked.

"What's the matter with you?" said Hermione as she walked into the room.

"Nothing."

"Okay….erm…Grace? I actually wanted to talk to you."

"Oh yeah?" There was something in Hermione's voice that made her pay attention.

"I- I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you this year," she said. "I should have been and I am so sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Grace asked.

"I know what really happened at the Christmas show."

Grace didn't say anything.

"Grace…..I found this while I was packing…." Hermione held up an empty bottle, she looked nervous and unsure. "I'm worried about you…..I didn't want to say anything before and then when we found out your dad was innocent I thought…..well I thought you would be okay because he would take care of you but now…..I just….. I don't think that…"

"Okay Hermione stop," said Grace. "It's okay, really. I was just talking to Dumbledore and he came up with a plan – Lupin's going to stay with me so you don't have to worry."

Hermione looked visibly relieved. "Professor Lupin seems really nice… this will be good," she said confidently.

Grace nodded. "Hope so."

"What are you going to do during the full moon?"

"I dunno…we haven't really sorted it out yet. By the sounds of it, he won't want me there-"

"You could stay with me, you know…. if you need a place to stay. My parents wouldn't mind and Ron said that we could all go to his house over the summer too."

Grace smiled gratefully. "Thanks Hermione."

**That's the end of another book...bring on Goblet of Fire!**


	16. Summertime

**And we have another chapter... but first I have been thinking about what I'm going to do in some of the chapters in the future and I was wondering what you think about me switching points of view at some point...so far I have only written it from Grace's point of view so if she's not there, I don't write about it but I was thinking about maybe writing from another perspective...it won't be for another few chapters yet but let me know what you think :-)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter _and _I didn't win the lottery last week...personally I don't think that's fair :-(**

**Chapter 16 - Summertime**

"Welcome to Blackseyer Lake," said Grace as they arrived.

Lupin followed her slowly through the front door, looking around apprehensively. He wasn't carrying much with him and it didn't take a genius to see that he didn't suit the grand house. The pristine floor, high ceiling and impressive hall didn't match his shabby coat, mended trousers and falling apart shoes. Grace watched as he stood there in silence taking in the slightly intimidating room.

"So…erm…do you want to see your room? Take up your stuff before dinner?" she asked. As she spoke two house elves walked into the hall. "Oh yeah," Grace said smiling at them. "This is Ella and Manny," she introduced, pointing first at the elf with the flower patterned white tea towel wrapped around her like a dress and then at the elf with the black tea towel wrapped around him like a tunic. "You two this is Remus Lupin, he's going to be living with us."

Lupin greeted each of them kindly. "Manny, could you show him his room?" asked Grace.

Manny agreed and taking one of Lupin's bags from him, started up the stairs. "See you in a bit then," said Grace awkwardly as Lupin set off to follow him. He nodded to her and the continued up the stairs.

_Well_, she thought. _At least he's finding this as bad as I am_.

Dinner was just as awkward. There was an uncomfortable silence as they ate at the table of the smaller dining room. Grace tried to make conversation.

"So…..do you like your room?" She had had the house elves get one of the cosier rooms ready for him. Grace thought he would be more comfortable in a smaller room; it was still quite large but it had a homely feel with the traditional furniture and warmer colours.

"It's very nice, Grace," he replied. He hesitated for a second and then said, "thank you."

"No problem, Professor."

"Grace, I'm not your professor anymore," Lupin said. "Please, call me Remus."

"Sorry," Grace mumbled looking down at her plate.

"Don't worry about it," he said quietly.

They ate in silence for a bit longer.

"Grace?" said Lupin eventually. She looked up from her plate.

"Yes?"

"I think we should discuss how this is going to work," he began.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, do you have any plans for this summer?" asked Lupin.

"Well Ron said that his dad got tickets to the world cup but I'm not sure I'm going to go…" She had thought about whether or not she would go since she received the letter from Ron but Fred's face kept popping up in her mind and she didn't think it was a good idea.

"Why not? It sounds like fun."

Grace sighed. "I'll think about it."

Lupin suddenly looked uncomfortable. "The thing is Grace that the full moon is coming up and I would….. I would prefer it if…."

"If I wasn't around to see it, yeah, I know," she said. "So basically I'm getting kicked out of my own house."

"It was Dumbledore that suggested that you could stay with friends and I just think that this would be the best way to do it. Now as for me…is there a room or…a place that I could..."

"You're still going to take the potion, right? Stay in your room," Grace shrugged. It really didn't bother her that Lupin was a werewolf or even that once he had transformed; there would be a werewolf in her house. As far as she was concerned, as long as he took the Wolfsbane potion, there was nothing to worry about.

"Alright, so what about when I'm at work?"

"What Work?"

"I have an interview for a job in a small shop tomorrow that's not far from here. Hopefully, I will be successful but we need to discuss what you are going to do while I'm there," he said cautiously.

"What I'm going to do? I'm fourteen not four," she said impatiently waving away his concerns. "Anyway, I'm going to be working too."

Lupin nodded. "Okay, what about when you go back to Hogwarts?"

"What about it?"

"Well….there will not be any need for me to be here without you-"

"Remus, I don't mind you being here. You do know that, don't you? Plus if you're getting a job so close wouldn't it make sense for you to stay?"

Lupin gave her a small smile. "Thank you, Grace."

Grace smiled back and they finished their meal.

"You know what; I think I might go to the Quidditch World Cup, after all," she said; thinking that if this was going to make him feel better about living there, then she would do it.

"Good, I'm glad. You'll enjoy yourself," he replied.

After that, things got a lot better between Grace and Lupin. It took a couple of days of them skirting around each other and making forced conversation before they became at ease around each other and things started to become much more natural. However, as the World Cup drew nearer, Grace was starting to wish that she hadn't agreed to leave so readily. In fact, if she hadn't already written back to Ron telling him that she would be there, she might not have gone.

Grace stood at the gate to the Burrow, gazing at the slightly crooked house before taking a deep breath and walking to the door. She knocked quietly, half hoping that they wouldn't hear her and she could just go on her way again without anyone being any the wiser. But Mrs Weasley answered the door after less than a minute. She must have been in the kitchen already.

"Grace! Come on in," Mrs Weasley said before pulling her into a hug and shutting the door behind her. "How are you, dear?"

"I'm fine. How are you?" said Grace politely.

"Good, I'm good. Are you hungry now or do you want to wait for lunch?"

"I can wait, thanks Mrs Weasley."

"Hey Grace!"

Grace turned to see Bill Weasley entering the room. He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

"Hi Bill," smiled Grace, hugging him back tightly. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh this and that. Nothing nearly as exciting as you," he laughed. "I've heard all about you."

Grace laughed too. "If you're going to believe everything you hear, I don't think we can't be friends anymore."

Then Charlie entered the room and greeted Grace similarly.

"Boys," said Mrs Weasley. "Help Grace take her stuff up to Ginny's room and then come back down to help me set the table for lunch." She turned to Grace. "You and Hermione will be staying with Ginny while you're here, is that okay?"

Grace nodded and followed the boys upstairs. She had first met Bill and Charlie when she had been staying with Professor Flitwick at Hogwarts for a short time. They had instantly connected and become fast friends. They spent longer than they meant to talking about what had happened since they had last seen each other until they realised they had agreed to help Mrs Weasley with lunch. It wasn't until they went back downstairs that Grace even saw Fred.

By the time they got there downstairs; Fred and George were already sat eating at the table and talking to Ron and Ginny.

Everyone except Fred said hello to her. Fred just carefully avoided her eyes and carried on eating his sandwich.

"Where have you three been?" said Mrs Weasley sternly.

"Sorry mum," said Charlie winking at Grace.

They joined the others at the table as Mrs Weasley handed them each a plate. Through the entire meal Fred and Grace talked to everybody but each other. When Fred had finished he mumbled some excuse and left, George followed soon after. Grace helped Mrs Weasley clear up until Hermione arrived. After that Grace and Hermione watched as the boys and Ginny played Quidditch.

"So how's it going with Lupin?" asked Hermione.

"Good, actually," said Grace.

"See? I told you it would be a good thing," smiled Hermione. "And, what about you and Fred?"

"What about us?"

"Come on, Grace. You've barely taken your eyes off him since we sat down."

_You could always count on Hermione to be annoyingly observant_, thought Grace. She thought she had been subtle about it.

"I don't really want to talk about it Hermione," she said.

Hermione raised one of her eyebrows at her. "Grace, you know you can tell me anything," she insisted. "You never know, maybe you'll feel better if you talk about it."

Grace sighed and rolled her eyes. _Trust her to be logical as well as observant_, she thought. "I don't know…..I just wish that things could go back to normal, you know, to before we kissed."

Hermione looked thoughtfully at her for a minute and then turned her attention back to the others before replying. "You never did tell me why you said no to him."

Grace looked back up at Fred again. "Because," she said slowly, trying to think how best to word what she wanted to say. "Because it would be different with Fred. What if we broke up and never spoke to each other again? Besides….I don't think…..it's just not a good idea."

"You do realise that that wasn't an answer, don't you?"

"Hermione, it's my choice-" said Grace.

"Okay, okay," Hermione replied holding up her hands. "I'm just saying that you can't avoid a relationship with someone just because it _might_ end badly."

That was when Mrs Weasley came outside to tell them it was time to pick Harry up. Grace decided to stay behind with Hermione and Ginny while Mr Weasley, Ron, Fred and George travelled to the Dursleys' by floo powder. Grace was just grateful that the tension left with Fred and she was able to relax with the girls for a bit. They went back to the kitchen at the same time that Mr Weasley apparated into the room.

"That _wasn't_ _funny_, Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything. I just _dropped_ it…it was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

From what Grace gathered, Fred had dropped one of his and George's inventions that made Harry's cousin's tongue grow several feet. She was having a hard time not laughing; it was hard to feel sorry for someone who she had heard so many horrible stories about from Harry. She caught Harry's eye and they both started sniggering unable to stop themselves. They quickly looked away from each other though once Mrs Weasley came in.

"Tell me _what, _Arthur?"

"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr Weasley. "Fred and George just – but I've had words with them-"

"What have they done this time?" said Mrs Weasley. Her voice was rising slightly and Grace glanced at Hermione. _Time to go_, she thought. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes-"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron. "In my room, he slept there last-"

"We can all go," said Grace pointedly.

"Oh, right," said Ron, finally cottoning on.

"Yeah, we'll come, too," said George –

"_You stay where you are_," snarled Mrs Weasley.

The rest of the family ducked for cover, hurriedly making excuses to leave the room before Mrs Weasley exploded. They could hear her shouting even from Ron's room at the top of the house.

"Have you had a good summer, Harry?" said Hermione, making conversation. "Did you get our food parcels and everything?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," said Harry. "They saved my life, those cakes."

"And have you heard from-" Ron began but Hermione silenced him with a look. Grace knew that he was about to mention Sirius but as Ginny didn't know he was innocent, it probably wasn't the best idea. Grace looked away from Harry. She knew that Sirius couldn't write to her for all the obvious reasons, at least until things calmed down a bit, but the idea that he could write to Harry without worrying about getting caught was just too hard.

Hermione stepped in then. "I think they've stopped arguing. Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?"

By the time they got downstairs, Mrs Weasley was cooking dinner and still seemed very angry. She told the girls to take the plates outside to where they would be eating and they hurried out, grabbing the plates without a word.

After dinner, nearly everyone went to bed for an early night but Grace, still feeling quite worked up, knew she wouldn't be able to sleep so she asked Mrs Weasley if she would be able to take a bath. Ten minutes later she was standing over the bath, wrapped in just a towel, turning off the tap. In her own she never locked the bathroom door, or any door, because she was the only person usually there. Even since Lupin moved in, she didn't really see the point but she should have known better in the Weasley house with twelve people staying and only one bathroom.

The door swung open violently and in the doorway stood the one person Grace did not want to walk in on her: Fred Weasley.

He stood there with his mouth hanging open, trying and failing to make real words. "Oh Merlin, I'm sorry…I err…..I didn't…" was all he managed to say.

Grace felt her face going red and tugged the towel around her more securely. "It's okay," she replied. "It's your house, after all."

They stood for a few seconds longer, both trying not to look at the other person. "I'll…erm…." said Grace. "I'll just….." She went to walk out of the door but Fred stopped her.

"Wait…here," he muttered taking one of the dressing gowns that was hanging on the back of the door and handing it to her, still not looking her in the eye.

"Thanks," she mumbled back. She slipped it over her shoulders before ducking quickly out of the door.

**Let me know what you think.**


	17. Up in the Air

**Here's another chapter, hope you all like it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, if I did I would have been able to buy that jacket I've been drooling over all week :-(**

**Chapter 17 – Up in the Air**

Grace walked with the girls to where the portkey was supposed to be on the morning of the Quidditch World Cup. Despite the fact that they were all still tired, there was an excitement in the air and they were all eager to get there. It took a while to get to Stoatshead Hill and then they split up to look for the portkey. Grace was the first to spot Cedric Diggory and his father and promptly abandoned her search for the portkey to go over to them.

"Hi," she said brightly to Cedric, who had been closest to her.

Cedric looked up in surprise. "Oh, hi Grace. I didn't know you were coming," he said.

"Yeah….well it was kind of a last minute thing but here I am," she smiled.

"Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!"

"That's my dad, come on," Cedric said, walking over to where the shout had come from. Grace walked with him and when they got there, the Weasley's and Amos Diggory were already making their introductions. Out of the corner of her eye, Grace saw the twins glaring at her and Cedric. She knew that George was still upset that Cedric and his team had beaten Gryffindor at Quidditch the year before but she had a feeling that Fred was glaring at them for a completely different reason.

"So how's your summer been so far then?" said Grace, ignoring Fred.

"Alright, I guess. I've mostly been waiting for this. What about you? How long have you been staying with the Weasleys?" answered Cedric.

"Just last night, so that I could come with them this morning. I've been at my place for the rest of the summer. It's been kind of boring really."

"You? Boring? Now, why don't I believe that?" Cedric grinned.

Grace laughed.

"Come on you two," said Mr Weasley. "Hand on the portkey."

Grace had travelled by portkey before and it was a feeling that you never got used to. When her feet hit the ground, she lost her balance and fell to the floor, taking Cedric with her. Opening her eyes, she realised that she had landed on top of him. It was only when somebody cleared their throat behind her that she realised how this looked and she grinned cheekily at Cedric who winked at her before they got to their feet.

"Don't we have to go now?" said Fred shortly.

"Yes, you're quite right Fred. It's this way I think," said Mr Weasley leading them towards the campsite.

It wasn't long before they had settled themselves at the campsite and Bill, Charlie and Percy joined them. Mr Weasley began his commentary of the other ministry workers. Grace, having met most of these people, soon got bored and decided it was time to go for a wander.

"Okay," Mr Weasley called after her. "But don't be long!" She waved back to him to show that she had understood and made her way passed the tents. She watched the people as she passed, smiling and saying hello to some of them courteously. It wasn't long though before she heard a familiar voice. One that she really did not want to hear.

"Hey Mum! Are the burgers ready yet?"

Grace peaked around one of the tents and there he was: Oliver Wood.

"Nearly. Go and find your father and tell him to hurry up."

Carefully and as quietly as she could, Grace backed away. However she didn't get far.

"Grace?"

She turned around, bracing herself for the worst but it wasn't Oliver that had called her name. It was his dad carrying what looked like a very large pan full of water.

"Grace?" he said again. He didn't _seem_ angry with her. "What are you doing here?"

"Erm…to watch the World Cup?" she replied, confused.

He laughed. "No, what are you doing hiding behind the tent? Come say hello."

"No Mr Wood. I…err….I have to go…" She started gesturing vaguely behind her. The last thing she wanted was to be dragged into a conversation with Oliver and his parents.

"Okay Grace, maybe later then."

"Yeah sure…." She agreed, thinking that she would definitely need to find another way back to the Weasleys. Grace walked quickly away, not paying much attention to where she was going. When she thought that she had gotten far enough away, she glanced around her, trying to figure out if it was time to start making her way back yet. Just then, she walked headlong into somebody.

"Watch were your – Ace? Are you okay?"

"I think I'm having the worst day ever," she grumbled before recognising the all-to-familiar nickname. "Draco? What….Why are you….What…?"

"Did you bang your head down there, Ace?" smirked Draco before helping her up.

"That's funny," she said sarcastically, wiping the grass off her for the second time that day. "Where's your dad?"

"Don't worry he's back at the tent," he said.

"Why aren't you 'back at the tent'?"

He shrugged. "Who are you here with?"

"The Weasleys. What's it to you?"

He smirked again. "Why aren't you with them?"

"You know what Draco? I really have to go." Grace turned to leave but Draco stopped her.

"Ace, hold on a second. I want to talk to you."

"About what?"

"I – er…..I miss you, I want you to come back."

"Draco, haven't we had this conversation before?" she said, raising one eyebrow at him.

"I know – I know why you don't want to but I don't see why we can't be friends anymore. That's all I want Ace, I swear."

Grace looked in his eyes and she believed him. She couldn't help it. All the reasons that she had stopped talking to him, that she had begun to avoid him and sided with Harry and the others, went right out the window.

"Drake, I _really_ need to go back now," she said finally.

He nodded and let go of her. "See you soon, then."

"Yeah, I'll see you soon."

Grace made her way back to the Weasleys' tent, without meeting anybody else, just in time. They followed the crowd to the stands and climbed the steps to the top box. Grace walked with Bill, knowing that Harry would ask if she spotted anyone on her walk and something told her that he would not like the fact that she had been talking to Draco. Once she was in the top box, she could appreciate how good the seats really were. However, she changed her mind once the other people joined them.

"Grace! How _lovely_ to see you!" drawled a voice behind her.

Grace spun around and came face to face with none other than Lucius Malfoy. He was smiling at her which just made her skin crawl. Instinctively she drew closer to Bill, who slightly repositioned himself so that he was standing in front of her protectively.

"Lucius, Narcissa," she said stiffly, nodding to both of them.

"You haven't visited in so long, I'd thought you'd forgotten who we were," said Lucius while Narcissa eyed Grace distastefully.

"If only we could, Malfoy," said Bill calmly.

Just then Fudge looked over at them so with a sickly sweet smile, Grace turned and settled herself in her seat.

"Don't worry about them," muttered Bill.

Ludo Bagman started his commentary then and soon everything else was forgotten. They watched the game from the edge of the seats, cheering with the rest of the crowd. By the time Ireland was presented the cup, Grace's hands were sore from clapping so hard and her voice was hoarse from shouting but that didn't stop her celebrating well into the night with the others.

She was still awake when there was a sound almost like fireworks going off in the distance and the sound of shouting. It wasn't the same kind of noise from before when everyone was partying though. These shouts were urgent, scared.

"Everyone up!" shouted Mr Weasley worriedly. "Get up! _Come on_."

They rushed out of the tent and saw the chaos that had started. People were darting everywhere, shouting for loved ones and ducking for cover while a group of people in masks were levitating what looked like Mr Roberts, the campsite manager, and his family in the air.

"You lot – get into the woods and stick together. I'll come and get you when we've sorted this out."

Bill, Charlie and Percy were already pulling out their wands and hurrying towards the source of the commotion.

"Wait! Where are you going?" said Grace.

"We going to help the Ministry," yelled Mr Weasley over his shoulder as he followed three of his sons.

"C'mon," said Fred, leading everyone towards the trees. Grace went to follow him but then she heard a noise that made her heart stop. It was a baby's cry. What if its' parents couldn't get to it? What if the Death Eaters got there first? She didn't even hesitate. Without a backwards glance at the others, she ran in the direction of the noise. Quickly, she looked into the tents as she passed, very aware of how close she was cutting it. That group of Death Eaters were getting closer all the time and they wouldn't exactly be pleased to see her.

It wasn't long before she stumbled upon a young woman and the baby in one of the tents. The woman wasn't speaking English but it was clear that she was terrified. She clutched the baby to her chest and rocked back and forth.

"What are you doing?" cried Grace. "Why are you still here?"

But the woman couldn't understand her. She just shook her head at Grace and started talking in a foreign language.

Grace started gesturing to the woman wildly. "Come on, lady," muttered Grace knowing that the woman wouldn't understand a word of it. "_We have to go_." In the end, she half-dragged the woman, who was still holding the baby, out of the tent. Once the woman saw the poor family, still in mid-air, she took off running in the opposite direction.

"_Finally_," murmured Grace.

"That was very _nice_ of you."

Grace hadn't noticed the man in the long cloak and creepy mask lurking next to one of the nearby tents and she was about to pay the price for it.

"_Heroic_, some would say, _generous_, even. Me – I think it's just stupid. You're all alone in the middle of the night. Are you lost little girl?"

"You really like the sound of your own voice, don't you?" She knew that it wasn't smart to talk back to him but the way she saw it, she was already in a heap of trouble, what did it matter now?

The Death Eater just laughed. "I think you need to be taught some manners."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Don't worry, I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget in a hurry."

He raised his wand and Grace braced herself. Her own wand was still in her pocket, she hadn't thought to take it out when she was looking for the baby and now it was useless to her. The Death Eater smiled and opened his mouth but before he could get the words out, somebody else shouted something.

"Expelliarmus!"

The Death Eaters' wand soared out of his hand and with one last look at Grace, he backed off, obviously thinking she had more help hidden in the tents around them. After she was sure he wasn't coming back, Grace looked around for who had saved her and she soon spotted him.

"_Percy_?" she gasped.

"Grace, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" he said rushing over to her and straightening his glasses.

"Errr…no, I'm fine," she said, still kind of in shock.

"We need to go back. The Ministry has the situation under control now."

Grace let him lead her back to the Weasleys' tent. She entered the tent and the first person she saw was Fred. She hadn't even realised she had been holding her breath until she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Grace?" said Mr Weasley. "Where are the others?" His worried voice was enough to get her attention and her eyes swept the room. Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't there.

"Oh, no," she breathed. Grace turned back around and left the tent with Mr Weasley close behind her. This time she pulled out her wand and she held it high as she pushed passed people. She had no idea where she was going; all she knew was the last time she had seen them, they had been heading for the woods so that was the direction she went in. As soon as she had lost sight of the tents, the Dark Mark rose up into the air. Without thinking, Grace ran towards it.

"Grace," panted Mr Weasley. "_Wait_."

She reached the clearing in record time and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione surrounded by Ministry officials. She sprinted over to them, Mr Weasley still following behind her and now shouting something to his colleagues.

"Which of you did it?" snapped Mr Crouch. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"Crouch, will you look at exactly who you're accusing?" retorted Grace. "Don't be ridiculous!"

Crouch peered at her. "And where were you when the Mark was conjured?"

"Are you honestly accusing me of doing this?" said Grace incredulously.

"She was with me," said Mr Weasley cutting in before Crouch could respond. "Where did the Mark come from, you three?" he asked turning back to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Over there," answered Hermione, pointing to towards the dark trees.

At Hermione's words, the wizards pointed the wands towards the trees and Amos Diggory went to investigate. It was silent as they listened to him searching through the trees until he shouted back that he had found something.

It was none other than Mr Crouch's house elf. For a while, Crouch refused to believe it and the poor house elf sobbed, begged and pleaded with him but eventually, after a few awkward moments in which no one quite knew where to look, he sacked the elf, Harry got his wand back and Grace, Mr Weasley, Harry, Ron and Hermione left the scene.

When they got back to the tent, everyone was relieved to see them and after they told the others what had happened, Mr Weasley ordered them all to bed.

"We will get a few hours sleep and then get an early portkey back to the Burrow," he said tiredly.

"Actually, Mr Weasley?" said Grace. "Can I just go home? I think Lu- I mean, Remus might be worried."

"Of course, Grace," said Mr Weasley.

Grace saw Harry give her a strange look but she shook her head to say that now wasn't the time for explanations and dropped onto her bed, knowing that sleep would not come easily.

**So...what do you think? I'm kind of unsure how to do the next chapter so it might take a little while but I'll figure it out ;-)**


	18. The Truth Hurts

**I'm not too sure about this chapter (which is why it took me a little longer to update than usual). I kind of wanted it to be _better, _but ah well...never mind. The next chapter won't be too long, I've written most of it, it just needs editing so that should be up soon.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series but I think everyone should know that by now.**

**Chapter 18 – The Truth Hurts**

Grace sat in the Great Hall next to Draco carefully avoiding the glares she was getting from the Gryffindor table. Once back at Hogwarts, Grace had begun talking to Draco like she used to and he, in return, confided in her about what things had been like at the Manor. She had been touched when he had told her that he had missed her and she knew that it couldn't have been easy for him. Of course, Harry and the others hadn't quite been able to understand that.

Grace had also avoided Moody. She had known him since she was very young, having met him when she had to spend time at the Ministry for one thing or another, and he knew how she had felt about the Malfoys. If she spent any more time with him than necessary, he would ask why she was spending so much time with the youngest Malfoy and less time with Harry, Ron and Hermione. The last thing she wanted was to have to defend the relationship she had with Draco. He would also want to talk about how badly she had handled living on her own and she did not reminding about that.

In the first few weeks of term, the most exciting thing that happened was the announcement that the Triwizard Tournament was coming to Hogwarts.

"I wonder what the tasks will be like."

"Are you entering?"

"Who will be the judges?"

Grace could hear all of the excited conversations as she nibbled at her toast. Personally, although she looked forward to watching the tournament, she thought she had more important things to think about. She still hadn't heard from her dad or spoken to Fred, Harry was getting kind of distant with her again because he couldn't understand her friendship with Draco and apparently it wasn't just the Gryffindors that had a problem with her occasionally sitting at the Slytherin table. She had made the mistake of looking down the table and had caught sight of Blaise and Pansy with their heads together and Grace had a funny feeling she knew what they were talking about. Every now and then they would glance up at her and then quickly continue their conversation.

"Ace? _Grace_!"

Grace jumped as Draco waved a hand in front of her face, startling her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded impatiently. "I've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes."

"Nothing."

"Okay, whatever," Draco said, unconvinced. "Your little friends seem to want you, but if you're too busy daydreaming-"

Grace looked over and saw Harry looking at her, when she caught his eye he gestured for her to come over.

"I'll see you in Potions," said Grace, getting up.

"Right, later then," replied Draco, obviously a little surprised by the abrupt dismissal.

Grace strode over to the Gryffindor table quickly and sat in the empty seat next to Harry.

"Sirius sent me this. I thought you'd like to see it," he muttered to her so that no one else would be able to hear. She took the folded parchment from him and opened it with trembling fingers. She hadn't realised how much she wanted some kind of contact with her dad and found it strange that she could miss the man so much when she barely knew him.

_Nice try, Harry._

_I'm back in the country and well hidden. I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. Don't use Hedwig, keep changing owls, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself and keep an eye on Grace for me. Don't forget what I said about your scar._

_Sirius._

Grace read the letter through so quickly she almost missed the mention of her and had to go back and re-read it more carefully. _'Keep an eye on Grace.' _The words echoed in her mind and she felt disbelief turn into defiant anger very quickly. Had she not shown that she was perfectly capable of looking after herself? He was making it sound like she needed a babysitter! If he was so worried why didn't he write to her? Why didn't he come and see her himself instead of getting Harry to watch her like she was a child? Consumed by her rage, she almost forgot Harry sat next to her.

"So he's back in the country?" said Harry smiling, oblivious to Grace's thoughts.

"Looks like it," Grace replied shortly, turning away from him.

"Grace, are you okay?" asked Harry having picked up on her mood.

"Fine." She turned back to him and saw his eyes filled with concern. What was wrong with her? She knew the reason her dad couldn't write to her and the letter just showed that he cared about her. She decided to change the subject. "What's that about your scar?"

"Oh yeah, I didn't get around to telling you, did I?" he said and then he told her all about his dream and his scar hurting over the summer.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about though," said Grace when he had finished.

"Yeah, come on, let's get to class," he replied, believing it even less than she did.

The rest of the day was spent in anticipation of the arrival of the other two schools and Grace stood next to Harry, Ron and Hermione waiting for them to turn up.

"Would it kill them to hurry up?" she grumbled to Ron.

He laughed. "Patience isn't one of your strong points is it Grace?"

"I _was_ patient," she said defensively. "About half an hour ago."

Just then a cry went up and the giant horse-drawn carriage appeared wit the students and head teacher from Beauxbatons. Not long after that Durmstrang showed up.

"Great," said Grace sarcastically. "Can we go inside now?"

She turned to head to the door and found herself being shuffled along with the crowd in the direction of the Entrance Hall. As the crowd moved forward, she saw Harry falling behind a bit so she let a couple of people go ahead of her so that she could wait for him. Just as she started moving again, Fred and George came up by the side of her. Since the summer, Fred hadn't even attempted to talk to her which had made it much easier to completely ignore everything that had happened between them. However, being so close to him wasn't easy.

"Hey Grace," greeted George. "What do you think of the newcomers?"

"So far, I think they're a bunch of show-offs," replied Grace.

George laughed and Grace risked a glance at Fred. He had been watching her but when she caught him looking, he quickly turned away. George saw the exchange and shook his head slightly as they filed through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall.

"Who do you thinks going to be the Hogwarts champion?" Harry asked Grace when he caught up to them.

"Cedric, who else?"

"Cedric?" said Ron from Harry's other side. "As in Cedric Diggory?

Grace shrugged. "Do you know another Cedric?"

"But he's – he's such a _pretty boy_," said Ron.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," replied Grace with a shrug.

"Tell me you don't fancy him, Grace -" Ron started but stopped when Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. "Hey! What was that for?"

"So who do you want to be Hogwarts champion?" Hermione asked Fred and George, ignoring Ron.

"Well, if it can't be us," said George. "I guess Angelina would be good, I heard she was going to enter."

"I just hope it's a Gryffindor and not some brainless Hufflepuff," muttered Fred.

Luckily, that was the moment they entered the Great Hall and had to take their seats. Grace led Harry, Ron and Hermione as far away from Fred and George as she could.

It turned out that Grace's assessment of the other schools was fairly accurate. Most of the Durmstrang lot boasted about Krum the famous Quidditch player and the Beauxbatons students either complained or bragged about their much fancier school.

Throughout the next day, people started putting their names in the Goblet in the hopes of becoming a Champion, and the impressive Halloween feast was largely overshadowed by the prospect of finding out who would represent each school in the Tournament.

Grace sat next to Harry at the Gryffindor table waiting for the feast to end. When Dumbledore rose to his feet, an odd sort of hush swept the students. Nobody seemed to even breathe as the goblet of fire was brought out. The fire lit up the room and suddenly glowed a brilliant blue before spitting out a piece of parchment.

"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum!"

"No surprises there!" shouted Ron over the applause.

As the noise died down, the goblet turned blue again.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

Grace rolled her eyes as the girl tossed her hair and beamed at everyone before following Krum through to the next room.

"What a stupid, attention-seeking, self-absorbed bit-"

"_Grace_!" scolded Hermione.

Then the goblet burned blue and another bit of parchment came out.

"The champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory!"

"No!" said Ron loudly.

"Told you so," said Grace smugly as she clapped along with the Hufflepuffs.

Slowly the applause stopped and the room quietened down again. Dumbledore started his speech talking about how everyone should support the champions and so on until he stopped abruptly. The whole hall followed his gaze to the goblet which had turned blue again. By the looks on the teachers' faces, this was not supposed to happen. Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and stared at it for a full minute before looking back at the students in front of him.

"Harry Potter."

Grace's jaw dropped and she turned to face the boy sitting next to her. He looked just about as shocked as she felt and Grace knew instantly that he hadn't known about this. After a few minutes, Dumbledore called his name again and uncertainly, Harry got up and made what must have been one of the longest walks in his life.

Finding out that Harry was going to be competing in the Triwizard Tournament was beyond staggering. For some reason though, it was until the first task that the idea of Harry being a champion really sunk in for Grace. When she saw the dragons in the enclosure, her heart stopped.

"Hermione, what if he can't do the summoning charm?" she said quietly.

"He will," replied Hermione but her pale face revealed her fears.

They watched the other champions. _Why did Harry have to be on last?_ Finally, Harry stepped out and taking out his wand, he did the summoning charm. Grace could hear Hermione whispering under her breath. "Come on, come on, _come on_." She willed the broom to appear and let out a sigh of relief when it did. Then the fun began, she almost couldn't watch as Harry flew around the dragon and when he dived for the egg, she screamed so loudly that she startled the surrounding students.

Even though she was happy that Harry had made it through the first task alive, she decided to skip the party. Instead she went to the Slytherin common room. As she entered, she heard the familiar voice of Draco.

"Why couldn't the dragon just finish him off? It didn't even scratch him!"

"Because Potter is the luckiest idiot on the planet." Grace recognised Blaise's voice.

"But it was a _dragon_ for Merlin's sake!"

"Draco?" said Grace stepping into the room.

"Oh, hey Ace. What's up?"

"What's wrong with you?" she said coldly.

"What are you on about Ace?" he replied.

"Don't play innocent with me Draco. I know you don't like him but Harry would never wish you actual harm," Grace snapped angrily.

Draco got up and walked over to her, grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the common room and to the boy's dormitories.

"Grace, I know you like him and everything but _come on_. Potter deserves it. He walks around, acting like he owns the place and thinks he can get away with anything-"

"The only reason you don't like him is because you're jealous of him," said Grace. Draco's grip on her arm tightened and he glared at her.

"I am not jealous of him!" he snarled. "Don't you come in here and say that to me!" His grip tightened again and it was starting to really hurt.

"Get your hands off me, Draco," warned Grace.

"Or what, Grace? What are you going to do about it?" he sneered. "How dare you come to _my_ common room and speak to _me_ like that!"

All of a sudden, it was no longer Draco stood in front of her. Lucius stared at her through those cruel, cold eyes and Grace felt her courage shatter into a million pieces around her. Draco she could face but Lucius? Suddenly she was very afraid of what Draco would do while he was so angry at her; she felt weak and helpless.

If Draco noticed the change in Grace he didn't show it. He raised his hand as though he was going to hit her and it was all Grace needed to spur her into action. She pulled her arm from his grasp and ran out of the room, through the common room and into the corridor. She didn't stop until she was out of the dark dungeons and had passed the portrait which guarded the kitchen. Tears began to fill her eyes and her vision blurred. She ducked into an empty room and closed the door behind her before she dropped to the floor and curled up in a ball.

**Don't forget to review!**


	19. When Life Gives You Lemons

**A couple of chapters ago I mentioned that I might try to follow a different character for a change and a lot of people seemed to like the idea so this is what I've done with this chapter. It's not as long as some of the other chapters while I was trying something new but I hope you all like it!**

**Disclaimer: I'm getting kinda bored of these now...I think everyone knows I don't own any of it.**

**Chapter 19 – When Life Gives You Lemons….**

Fred slipped out of the Gryffindor common room while the party was still in full swing. They had started to run out of food and he had offered to go get some more from the kitchens as George was still taking orders for their canary creams. They had been a great success at the party and he couldn't wait to try something new.

He walked through the deserted corridors taking the familiar short cuts and listening out for Filch. He reached the corridor just off the Entrance Hall that led to the kitchen in no time but then he stopped. He had heard a noise coming from one of the rooms. Thinking that he had been caught, Fred braced himself but as he stopped and listened closer he realised it sounded like someone was crying.

Naturally he went to investigate. He listened carefully and stopped outside the door where he thought the noise was coming from. Opening the door slowly his eyes swept the room and it wasn't long before he spotted a girl curled up on the floor. It took him even less time to recognise the girl as Grace.

As soon as he realised who it was, he threw the door open with a bang and rushed to her side.

"Grace? What's wrong?"

She didn't answer. She just buried her head even deeper into her arms, hugging her knees to her chest and continued to sob.

"What are you doing down here?"

Still nothing. He tugged gently at one of her arms and he saw her flinch slightly. Now Fred was beginning to get worried.

"Did someone hurt you?"

She started to cry harder.

"Grace, please tell me what's wrong," begged Fred. He was starting to wonder if he should go get someone….a teacher maybe. They would both be in trouble for being out so late but if she really was hurt….

Eventually, and so slowly Fred almost thought he was imagining it, Grace raised her head to look at him. Her face was pale under the black streaks down her face caused by her tears and her eyes were wide with fear. Realising that she didn't look physically hurt, Fred shuffled closer to her and put his arms around her. He felt her bury her head into his chest and he hugged her closer. She was still crying but at least now she had started to speak. He caught muffled words that sounded like "Draco", "stupid" and "Lucius". Most of what she was saying wasn't making any sense but that didn't stop Fred from trying to figure it out.

"Malfoy upset you?" he guessed and he felt her nod. It took quite a few minutes longer for Grace to calm down enough to tell Fred what had happened in the Slytherin common room and when he saw the bruise on her arm where Malfoy had held on to her, he felt anger surge up inside him. It didn't take him long to work out that Grace had lied every single time he or George had asked about what life was like with the Malfoys. However, he couldn't exactly be mad at her while she still looked so scared. Instead he settled for putting his arms around her protectively again.

"Don't worry Grace. I won't let them hurt you again," he promised and as gently as he could, he pulled her to her feet and set off for the Gryffindor tower. Fred carried on whispering to her on the journey back, giving her words of encouragement and comfort every time her feet started to drag.

By the time they reached the common room the party had ended and the room was empty; for which Fred was very grateful, he didn't like to think about what it would have been like to take her through an already over-excited crowd. Fred steered her towards the girl's dormitories and then stopped, unsure of what to do. He couldn't take her up there. Boys weren't allowed in the girl's rooms; him and George had tried to pull a prank on the girls in their second year and couldn't even get up the staircase. Grace must have recognised his hesitation because she suddenly gripped on to his arm tightly.

"Please don't leave me," she whispered.

After another moment of indecision, Fred steered her towards the boy's dormitories and his room.

"There you are!" exclaimed George. "Where've you-"

Fred shook his head violently to get George to be quiet. He wasn't entirely sure if George had seen him and stopped or had been dumbfounded by the appearance of Grace. Either way he was grateful that George didn't say anything else while he led Grace over to the bed and she climbed in wearily. As soon as she was settled, Fred pulled one of the chairs from the corner of the room over to the bed and sat down in the gap between his bed and George's.

They waited for Grace's breathing to even out and then started their whispered conversation.

"What happened?" said George quietly.

"I found her in one of the empty rooms on my way to the kitchen," Fred replied rubbing his hand over his face. "She'd had a fight with Malfoy." He didn't expand on that, he knew that the only reason she had confided in him about it was because she had been so upset and he had a feeling she would not be too happy if he went and told George.

"But why did you bring her here?"

"I couldn't exactly leave her downstairs all alone, could I?" answered Fred. He watched her turn over in her sleep.

"You know what, Fred? I distinctly remember you telling me that you were over Miss Blackseyer," George commented with a smug grin.

Fred didn't answer but he carried on watching her sleep and George's grin slipped from his face.

"Fred? What happens when she wakes up? What if she still doesn't want anything to do with you?"

He felt his brother's gaze on him. _What would happen?_ The thought that she would turn away from him again, tore him apart inside but then he remembered the look on her face when she had asked him not to leave her and his happy-go-lucky, joking nature reappeared.

"Nah, it's not going to happen," he said confidently.

"How do you know?"

"With a face like this? Who could resist?" he said. George laughed and threw one of his pillows at him. Fred settled down on the chair with the pillow for the night.

Over the next few weeks, Fred spent a lot of time with Grace. He had told George and Lee that Malfoy had upset Grace (not quite explaining exactly what he had done to her) and between them they made sure that Malfoy couldn't even get close to her. It was starting to feel like it had when he had first met Grace. It was fun to be around her (when she wasn't upset) and she even helped them with some of their inventions by giving them a fresh perspective on some of their products.

When he was with her he even forgot about the whole Bagman business which George wasn't too happy about because it meant he had to think about how to deal with it on his own. The Christmas holiday crept up on them fast and they had still not heard anything back from Bagman. They were starting to get concerned.

"We haven't got a choice, George," Fred said as they entered the common room. Out of habit, his eyes swept the room until he spotted Grace talking to Angelina and Alicia over near the entrance to the girl's dormitories.

"Well, okay," replied George, getting his attention again. "But we're going to have to ask Ron if we can borrow his owl again."

They approached Ron, Harry and Hermione just as Ron's card castle blew up in his face and singed his eyebrows.

"Nice look, Ron" commented George. "Go well with your dress robes that will."

"Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" asked Fred.

"No, he's off delivering a letter," said Ron. "Why?"

"Because George wants to invite him to the ball," said Fred sarcastically, rolling his eyes at his younger brother.

"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat," said George.

"Who'd you keep writing to, eh?" said Ron suspiciously.

"Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that for you too," said Fred before deciding maybe it was time to steer the conversation out of such dangerous waters. "So…you lot got dates for the ball yet?"

"Nope," replied Ron unhappily.

"Well, you better hurry up mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said Fred.

"Who're you going with, then?" asked Ron.

"Grace," said Fred promptly.

"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"

"Good point," said Fred. He turned his head to where he knew Grace was and called across the common room, "Oi! Grace!"

Grace looked over with one eyebrow raised. "What?" she called back.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Grace took maybe a minute to answer and it was the longest minute of Fred's life. For one heart-stopping minute, Fred thought she might reject him and say no but then she smiled at him.

"Yeah, okay," she said and when she turned back to Angelina, she had a huge grin in her face.

"There you go," said Fred turning back to Ron and Harry with a grin on his own face, emboldened by his success. "Piece of cake."

He got up tiredly. "Come on then, George. We better use a school owl…" He mouthed to Grace that he would be back soon as she turned her head to look at him and then left the common room with George unable to think of anything other than taking Grace to the Yule Ball.

**So let me know if you liked it, if you did I'll probably write another chapter in the future like this one :-)**


	20. Stuck With Me

**So this has taken me longer to upload than usual but I've been having a bit of a problem with writer's block so I'm hoping that now I've managed to finish this chapter we should be back on track. I also wanted to get this one out in time for christmas so that I could wish you all a very merry christmas! **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be as disappointed every time I don't win the lottery.**

**Chapter 20 – Stuck With Me**

Grace ran on. The pain in her side was excruciating but she could not stop. Branches swiped at her, catching at her clothes and scratching her face, hands and arms.

"You can't run forever!"

That became true all too soon. She lost her footing on the uneven ground and stumbled down, landing awkwardly on one of her knees. Grace hastily ducked behind a tree, desperately trying to control her breathing even though she thought it was pointless because the pounding of her heart was sure to give her away anyway.

"Grace?" he called.

Grace held her breath. The voice had been much closer than she had expected but she still couldn't see him.

"Grace? Where are you? It's time to come out…"

What was she going to do? She couldn't run anymore; she could already feel the blood running down her leg from her knee. However, she couldn't fight him either, he was much too strong. _What was she going to do?_

"Grace!"

He sounded so angry. He was going to kill her. There was nothing stopping him. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it. No one knew where she was so there was nobody coming to save her. He just had to find her, which was only a matter of time, and then she would be dead.

"Grace?"

She closed her eyes. Any second now…

"_Grace_!"

Grace jerked awake and came face to face with a very worried looking Fred Weasley.

"Grace? Are you okay?" he said.

She sat up slightly, pushing her soaked hair out of her eyes and glancing around the room as her heart rate began to get back to normal. It was dark and she could just make out the shapes of the other people still sleeping.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said groggily. "What time is it?"

"Just after two," he said, his eyes still looking over her suspiciously then suddenly they brightened as he thought of something. "So I guess a 'merry Christmas' is in order."

Grace smiled in spite of herself. "Merry Christmas, Fred," she said. "Now go back to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am," he joked before settling back down for another couple of hours sleep.

The next morning, after exchanging presents, the Weasleys, Grace, Harry and Hermione went down to breakfast to see that most of the school had stayed for the holidays. Fred was still thanking Grace for the Christmas present she had given him. She had gotten him a new beater's bat with an inscription near the handle (that said simply: 'To Fred, Love Grace') while he had gotten her a snow globe with a picture of the two of them inside (the fake snow continued to swirl magically without having to shake it).

With breakfast came a letter from Lupin:

_Dear Grace,_

_First of all, I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas! I thought long and hard about what to get you for Christmas and I hope what I came up with is enough (you will find it enclosed in this letter)._

_Thank you for your last letter too. The new job is going well. The old couple who own the shop are very understanding about my absences once a month. I know that you worry about me but I promise you that I am happy here; I assure you your house elves are taking good care of me. _

_Don't forget to tell me all about the Yule Ball and look after yourself Grace._

_Remus_

_Good_, she thought. He was right; she had been worrying about him (even though she knew he was a grown man that was perfectly capable of looking after himself)_._ She didn't like to think about him all alone at Christmas. Enclosed in the letter was another piece of parchment addressed to her and as she opened it, she let out a small gasp, all thoughts of Remus leaving her mind.

_Gracie,_

_You have no idea how much I have wanted to write to you sooner but I could not risk them finding out that you were in contact with me. You will have to thank Moony for this as getting this letter to you safely was entirely his idea (he always was the smart one)._

_There is so much I want to tell you and talk to you about but for now this letter will have to do. It kills me that I have missed so much of your life and even now I can't be there for you like I should be. However, I'm hoping that one day soon I will get the chance to get to know you as well as I would like to. Although from what I have seen and heard, you have inherited many of my more charming traits. _

_I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Grace and please, __please__ be careful and keep yourself safe because I could not take losing you again. _

At the bottom of the parchment, instead of a signature, was a paw print. Grace felt her eyes fill up as she re-read the first letter she had ever received from her father.

"What's that, Grace?" asked Ginny who was sat opposite her.

Blinking away her tears, Grace rearranged her expression so that she was smiling. "Just a letter from Remus," she answered before placing both letters carefully into her pocket.

The day passed quickly and soon it was time to get ready for the Yule Ball. Grace had chosen a pale gold dress and styled her long dark hair into loose curls. She helped both Hermione and Ginny get ready too and then, with her mother's necklace tucked safely into the front of her dress, she was ready.

With a deep breath, she went down to the common room and spotted Fred immediately. He had his hands in his pockets and looked very uncomfortable in his dress robes as though he would much rather be in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. As soon as he saw her though, his face lit up and he rushed forward to meet her.

"Wow," he said. "You look amazing."

"Thanks," Grace grinned. "You don't look too bad yourself."

"You ready?"

Grace nodded and Fred held out his arm. "Well, then let's get you to the Ball, Miss Blackseyer."

She took his arm and let him lead her out of the common room and down towards the entrance hall where they met George and Angelina.

"Hey, you two. We were beginning to think you weren't coming," said George as they approached.

"And miss spending the night with the lovely Grace here? Not likely," Fred replied, putting his arm around her playfully.

"Like that would have stopped you," George muttered, rolling his eyes but then winking at Grace.

"Oi! Ace!" said a voice behind them. Grace gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as though praying for strength before turning round to face him; she already knew who it was.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" said Fred, his arm tightening slightly around Grace.

Pansy glared at Fred but Draco didn't even look at him. "So, what? Is he your boyfriend now?" he said mockingly.

Grace responded before she'd even thought it through. "Yes he is. Have you got a problem with that?" _Oh no_, she thought. _Was he her boyfriend? They hadn't talked about that yet…..why did she have to open her big mouth? _

Draco looked taken aback, whatever he had expected her to say, it wasn't that but it didn't take long for him to recover.

"This isn't you, Ace," he hissed. "You don't belong with them."

"And I suppose I belong with you and your group of posers?" Grace retorted, looking at Pansy in disgust.

Draco glowered at Grace and Pansy looked as if she was going to launch herself at Grace any second but before any of them could say anything else, Professor McGonagall hurried up to them.

"What are you doing? It's nearly time for the first dance! Move along now," she said shooing them into the Great Hall. With McGonagall behind them, Draco and Pansy had no choice but to go and join the other Slytherins at the opposite side of the room.

Grace watched Harry's poor attempt at dancing while her mind was in overdrive. She didn't look over at Fred to see what his expression was even though she could feel his eyes on her. _Had she ruined everything already? Why did she have to say that he was her boyfriend? _However, she didn't have long before the first dance with the champions was over and Fred was pulling her onto the dance floor. The song that started was a slow one and they started to sway in time with the music.

"Grace?" said Fred cautiously. She finally looked up at him but she couldn't tell from his expression what he was thinking. "Did you mean what you said to Malfoy? About me being your boyfriend?"

She bit her lip nervously, wishing that she could look away but he held her gaze steadily. Slowly, she nodded.

"I want you to be my boyfriend," she said quietly.

Fred laughed.

"What's so funny?" Grace felt her cheeks burning.

"Nothing," he replied, still chuckling.

"_What_?" said Grace, getting annoyed now. "If you don't want to be with me then I'll just go-"

"No, Grace, wait," said Fred, holding onto her tighter. "I would love to be your boyfriend. It's just….. I can't believe it took an argument with Malfoy for you to admit it."

He started laughing again and Grace rolled her eyes. "You're hilarious, Fred Weasley," she said sarcastically.

"Don't forget adorable."

"Is it too late to swap you for George?"

"Oh yes," he said seriously as a more upbeat song started playing. "Now you're stuck with me."

**Let me know what you think ;-)**


	21. Stuck on Repeat

**Okay so I know this chapter isn't the best thing I've ever written but I kind of feel like I have spent long enough agonising over it and decided to just upload it and see what you all think. And I know that this chapter isn't very long, after the last one I really did try to make it longer but it kinda didn't work out too well...**

**Disclaimer: I still dont own anything except Grace :)**

**Chapter 21 – Stuck on Repeat**

Running. Running again. Always running. It was the same dream every night. The only difference was that now Harry's voice called to her, terrified through the darkness. She knew why Harry had started making a sudden appearance in her dreams, of course. With every day, the second task grew closer and Grace knew that although he had finally figured out the clue, he was no closer to figuring out what to do with it and now he had all but run out of time.

Fred had tried to make her feel better ("Do you honestly think that Dumbledore'd let anything happen to him?") but somehow it didn't work. She couldn't help but think that whoever was behind Harry being in the tournament had already taken Dumbledore into account and it certainly hadn't stopped them from putting Harry's name in the goblet in the first place.

She wished she could help him, instead but she had no idea what he was supposed to do. He was no where near advanced enough to transfigure himself into something and try as she might, she couldn't think of a better option. Her usual advice would be to ask Hermione but it looked as if Hermione knew about as much as she did on the subject and as neither if them had never had to survive for an hour under water, that wasn't a lot.

With this and the news that Hagrid was some monstrous half-giant getting around, Grace found herself getting very distracted and once again, her school work began to suffer.

"Ah, Miss Blackseyer," said Dumbledore as she entered his office and took her usual seat in front of him. "And so we find ourselves here yet again."

It was always a strange experience being sent to Dumbledore's office. She knew she was in trouble; she hadn't handed in a piece of homework for the last four weeks or shown up for Potions for the last three. However, he didn't seem angry or upset with her, in fact he almost seemed…..amused.

"Do you know how many complaints I have had about you over the past few weeks?"

He sat there calmly studying her and she stared right back, arms folded and resolute. She was getting impatient, she wished that he would just yell at her or give her a detention or something. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Grace realised that he was actually waiting for her to answer.

"I'd imagine a lot, sir, considering I'm here."

He surveyed her slowly before he spoke again. "Is there anything you would like to talk about, Grace?"

"Yes," she replied with an eyebrow raised; she hadn't missed the sudden change from 'Miss Blackseyer' to 'Grace'. "But I seriously doubt that you're going to like it."

Once again he stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. It didn't take long.

"Why are you letting Harry compete in the tournament?"

Grace couldn't help but notice Dumbledore's expression didn't change, like this was exactly what he had expected. How fair was it that he knew everything?

"You must know that he's in danger! Why didn't you just say no?"

"Grace, I understand that you are concerned for your friend-"

"You're not answering the question," she said and to her surprise, Dumbledore smiled.

"You know if you paid this much attention to your studies, we would not be sitting here now," he said. "The ministry feel that Harry's safety is not at risk and they consider the judgement of the goblet to be binding."

"Oh, come on! You don't believe that."

Just as Dumbledore opened his mouth to answer, there was a loud knock on the door and Bagman came bounding in.

"Dumbledore, can we-"

He stopped short when his eyes fell on Grace. "Oh," he said. "Am I interrupting something?"

Grace opened her mouth to tell him that he was but before she could speak, Dumbledore answered him.

"No, not at all. Miss Blackseyer, it looks like we will have to continue this conversation another time. Until then, I trust you will do your best to keep up with your lessons."

It was a dismissal and, after a quick glance between the two men, Grace left without another word.

By the time, she had set off to go back to the Gryffindor Tower, the sun had set and it was getting dark fast. She had just got past the library when she heard a noise. Grace stopped and the noise happened again. Slowly, she edged around the corner. There was a classroom door ajar and the noise was coming from inside. Grace opened the door.

"Cedric?"

Cedric Diggory looked up. He was slouching at one of the desks and he looked very confused as if he had no idea how he had gotten there. His hair was stuck up on one side and in one hand he had an empty firewhiskey bottle.

"Cedric? Are you okay?"

It took him a while to answer and when he did his eyes were still unfocused. "Bottle was a Christmas present," he said thickly.

"Okay," she said. "Don't you think it's time to go to bed now?"

"Can't move," he giggled. "I tried."

Grace sighed and took the empty bottle away before he dropped it. She set it on the side and turned back to study him. There was no way she would be able to carry him and now that she thought about it, she had no idea where the Hufflepuff common room was. In the end, she pulled up a chair and sat next to him; deciding that she couldn't leave him there alone and if she couldn't move him she would have to stay until he sobered up.

"So, is there a reason you downed a whole bottle of firewhiskey?"

Cedric shrugged clumsily. "I didn't….."

"Hate to break this to you, but you kinda did."

Cedric mumbled something incoherent and slumped a little further in his chair. Grace edged her own chair as close to him as possible and prepared herself to catch him if he fell. They were quiet for a while and Grace could feel herself getting tired; she had slept badly again last night.

Grace didn't remember falling asleep but suddenly the sound of footsteps and voices were coming through the door and daylight was streaming in through the windows.

"Cedric?" she said, shaking him awake.

He was up like a shot and looked like he instantly regretted it.

"Feeling better?" she asked brightly.

Cedric looked at her with horrified eyes. "Grace, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't do anything did I?"

Grace laughed. "Don't worry, you were already mostly unconscious by the time I got here. What were you doing here by the way?" she gestured around the room.

Cedric shook his head. "I honestly don't remember," he grimaced. "Is your head supposed to feel like it's about to explode?"

"It'll pass," she promised. "Just avoid doing anything that involves moving too much. Come on, let's go."

They reached the Great Hall quickly. "Hey, Grace?" said Cedric.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for…well…erm…everything," he said, embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled and winked at him before spotting Fred and going over to sit with him.

"Where've you been?" he asked as she sat down and helped herself to some of his toast.

She opened her mouth to answer but before she had gotten any words out, someone came over to them.

"Oi! Ace!"

They turned to see Draco walking toward them with a huge smirk on his face.

"I hear you spent the night with Diggory," he said.

"What's it to you, Malfoy?" she replied.

"I have to say I'm impressed," he continued as though she hadn't spoken. "You're really making your way through the Quidditch players."

It was only then that she realised how bad it looked. She was still wearing the clothes that she was wearing yesterday and she had walked in with a very dishevelled-looking Cedric. However, it was about to get a lot worse….

"Oh," he said, looking very pleased with himself by now. "And you left this." From behind his back, Draco pulled the empty bottle of alcohol and put it on the table in front of her.

Grace looked over at Fred and immediately wished that she hadn't. She had never seen him look so angry before; the smile that usually lit up his face was gone. He wasn't looking at her and Grace saw behind him that even George was glaring at her.

"Fred-" she started but she didn't know what to say to him. She knew that if it was the other way around, she wouldn't believe her.

Fred didn't say anything. Instead he got up, still not looking at her, and walked out of the Great Hall. Draco and his friends had started laughing. Grace lost her temper.

"You will pay for this Malfoy," she swore as she stood up and shoved him roughly out of her way so that she could go after Fred.


	22. The Next Step

**Hi People! I actually can't wait until I get to the fifth book but I'm not going to cheat and just skip right to it. However getting past the second task feels so good considering how long I was stuck on it. Anyways can't wait to hear what you lot think and this chapter pretty much carries on straight from the last one left off so if you're like me and have a terrible memory you might want to read the end of the last chapter to remind yourselves what happened :-)**

**Disclaimer: I don't blah profit blah harry potter blah blah...**

**Chapter 22 – The Next Step**

It took her a long time to find Fred, by which time Transfiguration was about halfway through (so much for her keeping up with her lessons). He was outside by the lake when she caught up with him and he still did not look happy.

"Fred?" she said tentatively.

He looked up as she approached and then looked away quickly. However, it wasn't quite fast enough. She caught the look in his eyes, that look of hurt and betrayal and it cut through her like a knife. He believed everything that Draco had said. She saw it written all over his face. _How could he think she would do that to him?_

"Grace, please just leave me alone."

"Fred, I-"

"Grace, I mean it, just go."

"I didn't-"

"I don't want to hear it."

"Fred, could you listen to me for a second?"

"No, Grace, you listen to me. I don't deserve this!"

"I haven't done anything!"

"If you haven't done anything, where were you last night? You going to try and tell me that you weren't with Cedric last night?"

"Yes, I was but-"

"And you were drinking too!" The look of accusation was almost too much to bear. "I thought you'd gotten over that. When did you even have time to go get it?" he demanded. "Never mind, I don't wanna know."

"It wasn't mine. Fred you have to believe me! I found Cedric drunk last night. He was so out of it that I just couldn't leave him but that's it! Nothing happened!" She had gotten very close to him by this point so that she was standing just inches away.

"Why should I believe you?"

That stumped her. Fred always believed her. He had always been on her side, always stuck up for her. From the day they had met on her very first train ride to Hogwarts, even in the times that she wasn't speaking to him, he'd still believed her. _How could she have messed this up so thoroughly, so quickly? _Grace's eyes began to fill up. Why did she have to cry now? Of all the times she could have cried, why did it have to be _now_?

"Please, Fred," she begged. "_Please_."

Fred shook his head and started to walk away. She had to stop him. But what could she do? He'd made up his mind. He wasn't going to believe her. It didn't matter what she did, he was going to leave her. But she couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't.

"Fred, stop. You know I couldn't do that to you!"

He stopped mid-step and turned back to face her. "Oh, yeah? How would I know that Grace?"

"Because-" she began. The tears were coming thick and fast now and her mind was racing. She wanted to find the right words; the words that would make him come over to her. However, she also wanted to find words that didn't sound like they had come straight out of a really bad romance novel but that wasn't happening so-

"Because I love you."

From the look on Fred's face, that was probably the last thing he had expected her to say. All the anger and hostility seemed to leave him.

"What?" he said, looking dumbfounded.

"Please don't make me say it again," she muttered. Not in a million years did she (or anybody else for that matter) think that she would ever be the first person to say those words. They always sounded so _cheesy_…so fake.

Fred still looked like she'd grown an extra head. It would have been funny if the situation had been different. She stood waiting for him to say something, anything. It took him a few minutes to pull himself together; during which Grace tried desperately to stop the flow of tears. This was the second time she'd completely broken down in front of Fred. _Great_, she thought. _Now, as well as a liar and a cheat, he's going to think I'm an emotional wreck. Fantastic. _

"I love you too," he said finally. He closed the gap between them with long strides.

By lunchtime Grace and Fred's first argument was long forgotten by everyone except Malfoy. When they walked into the Great Hall, hand in hand, his face was priceless. However, Grace had more important things to worry about than Draco Malfoy. Tomorrow was the second task and Harry looked vaguely like he was going to be sick. She went over to sit with him and Fred followed.

"Hey," she said. Harry looked up and then looked back to his untouched plate.

"Still not figured out what you're going to do?"

Harry shook his head.

"Harry?" said Hermione as she hurried towards them. "I found a few books which might help us."

Harry got up. "See you later Grace," he said.

"Do you want me to come help?"

"No, it's okay." Grace watched Hermione hurry away and Harry following her.

"Why doesn't he just quit?" asked Fred as he reached over the table to grab a sandwich.

"What?"

"Why doesn't Harry just go to Dumbledore and say he doesn't want to do it anymore?"

Grace thought about it for a moment before she answered. "Because that's not Harry. Harry doesn't give up with these things. Besides, for some strange, unknown reason Dumbledore's encouraging him," Grace answered.

"What do you mean?"

At that moment, George, Lee and Angelina came to join them and the topic was quickly changed to their last lesson with Mad-eye Moody.

…

Grace was very glad that her and Fred had made up by the time she was sat in the front row, right behind the judges, waiting for the second task to begin.

"Grace, are you okay?" asked Fred but Grace barely heard him. She was searching the grounds for Harry who hadn't yet turned up. She half-wished that he wouldn't show but it didn't stop her from worrying.

"Where is he?" she muttered. She'd also noticed that Hermione and Ron were no where to be seen. _Maybe they were with him….wherever he was….._

Just then, Harry came tearing around the corner. Grace took a deep breath and watched him closely. He still looked as though he was about to be sick. _He wouldn't attempt to complete the task without a plan, would he? _Her eyes narrowed, he had something in his hand but from where she was sat, she couldn't see what it was.

"Any idea what he's going to do?" said George from Fred's other side.

Grace just shook her head. She should have gone to see him last night. _What kind of friend was she?_ However, she didn't have much time to think about it. No sooner had Harry arrived, Bagman was announcing that the task was about to start. The champions all lined up at the edge of the lake and Grace reached for Fred's hand. On the count of three, all four of them dived into the lake. Grace squeezed Fred's hand tighter. She heard Ludo Bagman talking about what the other champions were doing but her eyes were still on Harry. As far as she could tell, Harry hadn't done anything that would be helpful. It was only when Bagman started to comment on him that Grace put the pieces together. The object in Harry's hand had been gillyweed; which apparently allowed the user to breathe underwater. How Harry had known that and where he had gotten the stuff from, Grace had no idea but she was grateful for it anyway.

Bagman's commentary became a bit sketchy after that. He couldn't see what was happening in the depths of the lake any more than the audience could and most people settled in to wait the task out, mostly talking amongst themselves. Grace, on the other hand, hadn't let go of Fred's hand yet. If it had been anyone other than Harry, she would already have been complaining of boredom but as it was….

More than thirty minutes past before Bagman had anything real to comment on. Then Fleur re-surfaced, looking absolutely terrified and more dishevelled than Grace had ever seen her. It turned out that some grindylows had attacked her and she had been forced to turn back.

It was another thirty minutes before anything else happened. By the time Cedric popped up with Cho, Fred's hand had turned a strange shade of purple. Cedric had made it through the task relatively fine which Grace was glad about but now she was getting seriously worried. They had said the time limit was an hour and it had been longer than that, where was Harry and Krum?

When Krum came up with Hermione, Grace, ignoring shouts of surprise from both Fred and George, jumped over the bar separating the audience from the judges and raced over to her friend.

"Hermione, are you okay?"

Hermione nodded. She looked pale, wet and cold but other than that, she looked unharmed. Grace turned to Krum.

"Where's Harry? Did you see him down there?" she demanded but she didn't get an answer before Karkaroff pulled Krum away from them muttering to him urgently.

"Harry's not back yet?" asked Hermione, concerned.

Grace shook her head and turned back toward the lake. It was only about ten minutes between the time Krum and Harry came out of the lake with Ron and Fleur's sister but it was quite possibly the longest ten minutes of Grace's life. She waited until he was close enough to the edge of the lake and then grabbed hold of him to help pull him out of the water. She pulled him into a hug before sitting back and smacking his arm hard enough to leave a very red handprint.

"Are you crazy?" Harry asked, rubbing his arm.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Grace said ignoring his question as Hermione put a towel around him.

They waited while the judges discussed the points for each champion and unlike the others, Grace did not make fun of Harry for taking the song seriously. It wasn't long before the champions got their scores (Harry did very well considering he came in last) and they made their way back to the castle with Fred and George.

"Not that hand," said Fred when Grace reached for him. He moved so that he was standing on her other side and slipped his hand in hers.

Grace looked at him in confusion.

"I think you broke it."

**Next chapter coming soon...**


	23. Welcome Home

**So now we're back on track, I've already written the next couple of chapters i just have to type them up and edit them so it really shouldn't take that long :-) We're also back to a decent length with the chapters which I'm quite pleased about so yeah...**

**Disclaimer: don't own Harry Potter...still**

**Chapter 23 – Welcome Home**

As they entered March, the weather became drier, but cruel winds skinned their hands and faces every time they out into the grounds. Talk of the second task had finally begun to die down; much to Ron's disappointment (he had been thoroughly enjoying all the attention.)

"Hi everyone," said Grace cheerfully at breakfast on a bright but cold Friday morning. She sat down next to Harry, Ron and Hermione just as an owl dropped a letter in front of her. Grace hoped this was a reply from Remus saying he wasn't busy this Sunday so that she could go visit. Despite her reservations at the beginning, her and Remus had actually grown quite close over the course of the year through letters and visits like this one.

"Grace?" said Harry quietly, as she was opening her letter. "You might want to look at this." He passed her a small, grubby piece of parchment which read:

_Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Banges) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can._

Grace recognised the handwriting but she hardly dared to believe it.

"Is this from-" began Grace.

Harry nodded and excitement flooded through her. She was going to get to see her dad! But before she even had chance to think this thought through, Harry was speaking again.

"Grace, what if he's caught?" he asked.

"He won't be," replied Grace confidently but some of her excitement began to fade slightly as she opened her own letter.

...

That excitement came back, however, on the Saturday morning. After collecting as much food as physically possible, Grace said goodbye to Fred and set off with Harry, Ron and Hermione to Hogsmeade. She felt bad for leaving Fred behind but after talking about it to the others they had all decided that, for now at least, the less people that knew about Sirius, the better. Besides, she couldn't feel too bad about Fred, after all she got to spend every day with him but how often did she get to spend time with her dad?

They reached Hogsmeade too early to go straight to meet Sirius and used the time to do some shopping but Grace couldn't focus. She found herself constantly looking around as if she expected Sirius to come strolling down the street to meet them even though she knew it was impossible. She was eager to go and see him and continuously asked Ron for the time.

"It's not time yet!" he exclaimed loudly causing an elderly witch to glare nastily at him, after the fifteenth time she'd asked.

When it finally was time, Grace led the way past Dervish and Banges and out of the village. As they rounded a corner, a very large shaggy black dog came into view which barked once he spotted them.

"Hey, Daddy," said Grace as she approached him.

"Hello, Sirius," said harry from behind her.

The dog sniffed Harry's bag (which had all the food in it) and then turned, trotting away from them. Once again Grace led the way after him.

It took nearly half an hour for them to reach their destination (a cool, dimly-lit cave). The others went to greet Buckbeak the Hippogriff but Grace stood waiting for Sirius to transform back into a man. Once he had, Grace wasted no time and hugged him tightly; a hug which he returned fiercely, before taking the bag from Harry and almost diving into it.

Grace sat on the floor next to him while he ate. It was only then she had the chance to get a good look at him. His robes were ragged and his hair was long and dirty. As she looked closer, she noticed more: there were bags under his eyes, his skin was almost sickly pale and his clothes looked much baggier than they had before.

"Stop looking at me like that," Sirius smiled when he noticed her staring at him. His smile wasn't as reassuring as it should have been, though. Fortunately Harry had noticed the same things.

"What're you doing here, Sirius?" Harry asked bluntly.

"Fulfilling my duties as a godfather," he answered. "And as a father," he added nodding at Grace. "Don't worry about me. I'm pretending to be a loveable stray." He seemed to realise that nobody looked convinced because he continued more seriously. "I wanted to be on the spot. Your last letter...well, let's just say things are getting fishier. And by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."

"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?" questioned Harry. "You shouldn't have come here."

"Harry, stop it!" said Grace. "Besides Dumbledore, we're the only ones around here that know he's an animagus, so will you quit worrying? You are ruining reunion day for me."

Sirius grinned. "You heard the lady. Don't worry about me," he said before going back to devouring his chicken leg.

While he was eating, Harry and Ron were leaning over one of the Daily Prophets that had been on the floor so Grace picked up the other one. She only half-listened to their conversation about Crouch. She already knew most of what they were saying so instead, she read the article about Bertha Jorkins. Something about the story unsettled her but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

"And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," said Sirius who'd been leaning over Grace's shoulder to see what she was looking at.

"Bagman told me they hadn't," said Harry.

"Yes, he's quoted in the article," replied Sirius. "Blustering on about how bad her memory is. Well, she might've changed, but the Bertha I knew wasn't like that at all. Excellent memory for gossip; in fact I can see her being a bit of liability at the Ministry... maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long..."

"How have they not found her yet?" asked Grace, she looking at the picture of Bertha from the article. "Everybody on the look-out for her and yet not a single person seems to know where she went?"

"I don't know," Sirius said but he too looked troubled.

They all lapsed into a thoughtful silence and Grace put the paper down.

"Hey Ron?" she said suddenly.

"What?"

"What time is it?"

Ron looked like he wanted to hit her but settled for throwing the Daily Prophet at her instead, which she swiftly dodged before sticking her tongue out at him.

"It's half past three," said Hermione rolling her eyes.

"You'd better get back to school," said Sirius, amused by the two of them as he got to his feet. Then he turned serious. "Now, listen...I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here, I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission, it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

They agreed but suddenly Grace felt uncomfortable. _Technically_, she didn't have permission to go home the following day to see Remus. She'd told Remus, of course, that Dumbledore had told her that she could but she hadn't actually gotten around to asking him. But she was just planning to go straight home, what could happen?

"I'll walk to the edge of the village with you," Sirius was saying, "See if I can scrounge another paper." Apparently he hadn't noticed her guilty conscience, because they then made their way back to Hosgmeade without another word but the feeling wasn't that easy to shake.

...

The next day dawned and once again. Grace said goodbye to Fred in the entrance hall thinking that she was definitely going to have to find a way to make up for her abandoning him all weekend. She walked down the path to the gates of Hogwarts. She slipped out and walked a little way towards the village before sticking out her arm. Within seconds a huge purple bus appeared and screeched to a halt about a foot from where she was standing.

"Miss Seyer! It's been a while since we seen you on here. Can I get you anything? A drink? Something to eat?"

"Hi Stan," she said as she climbed onto the bus. "If you could just give me a ride home and back that would be great." She handed over the money and was careful to sit as far away from Stan as possible.

The journey home seemed to last forever. She stared out of the window and every now and then she thought she saw a dark shape out of the corner of her eye. So she was very relieved when they stopped outside her house. Stan came over to her with that goofy smile on his face but Grace cut him off before he could say anything.

"So I'll give you a shout when I need picking up, okay?" she said over her shoulder and she jumped off the bus before he could answer. She almost ran to the front door and the second it was closed behind her, she felt relieved.

"Hello?" she called as she took off her coat. She heard a very quiet crack behind her and when she turned around a house elf was peering up at her.

"Hi," she said brightly. "How have you been?"

The house elf smile shyly up at her. "Very well, Miss Grace. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Actually, could you make up some tea?"

The elf nodded and turned to go but Grace stopped her. "Ellie, where's Remus?"

"The library, I think Miss Grace," she answered.

Grace should've known, she walked up the stairs to where the library was and opened the door quietly. Sure enough, there in an armchair in the corner was Remus Lupin.

"You know it's polite to be there to greet someone when they come home, right?"

Remus jumped up from the chair but he smiled when he saw her.

"It's also polite to knock and give people fair warning before sneaking up on them," he replied.

Grace laughed. "I guess," she agreed. "Come on, Ellie's making tea."

They headed down the stairs and into a sitting room where a teapot and some cups were already waiting.

"So what's been happening at Hogwarts?" Remus asked conversationally.

Grace hesitated for a second before deciding that if there was one person she could tell; it was Remus. "I saw Dad yesterday."

Remus nearly choked on his tea. "What?" he spluttered and Grace described everything that had happened the day before. After she had finished they were quiet for a while.

"Grace, is there anything bothering you?" Remus asked. She looked at him and realised that he had been watching her. She'd forgotten how observant he could be; this wasn't like writing to him in a letter...or like being with her dad.

"They're not going to catch him, are they?"

Remus was thoughtful. "You know, Grace, your father was always breaking the rules before you were born...and he very often got away with it too. I think he knows what he's doing."

"But he looked so...thin," she insisted.

"Well, now we know where he is, we can send him more food. I think between us, we can make sure he won't starve. Besides, your dad is a grown man, Grace, he can take care of himself."

Finally Grace agreed. She felt better after talking to Remus and they soon moved on to lighter topics until Grace had to get back to school.

**Don't forget to review peoples ;-)**


	24. Into the Maze

**Told you it wouldn't take me that long to update ;-) Enjoy...**

**Chapter 24 – Into the Maze**

Like Sirius, Grace couldn't wait for the third task to be over with. Between the Crouch fiasco and training Harry to be prepared for anything in the task, things seemed to be getting wildly out of hand. Furthermore, Grace had realised a disturbing fact: once Harry was in the maze, he was on his own. And this was not something Grace would let happen without a fight.

"Safety measures have been taken, Miss Blackseyer," said Dumbledore patiently.

"I know, I heard you the first time but there won't actually be anyone in the maze with the champions, will there? What if something goes wrong?" argued Grace.

"We will have people monitoring the maze and if something goes wrong, they will be able to reach the champions," explained Fudge.

"But what if they're not fast enough," Grace insisted.

"What do you propose we do, Blackseyer?" asked McGonagall, exasperated.

Grace felt everyone's eyes on: Dumbledore, McGonagall, Fudge, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime. _Time to get to the point then_, she thought.

"I want to be in the maze for the third task," she said simply.

"That's outrageous!" exclaimed Karkaroff. "Hogwarts can't have three champions-"

"Not as a champion," interrupted Grace. "Just as...an extra set of eyes. Just in case."

"Absolutely not, Blackseyer," said McGonagall. "You're just a child."

"I'm the same age as Harry," Grace pointed out. "In fact I'm a couple of months older – but that's not the point. I'm not suggesting that I take part in the task. I just want to be on hand."

"You know that's not a bad idea," said Bagman, thoughtfully.

McGonagall rounded on him furiously. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, Grace has quite the following... what if she presented the cup to the winner?" he said.

"It would generate a lot of publicity," agreed Fudge. "The good kind for a change." _Okay, so this wasn't exactly what she had in mind..._

"How do we know she won't help the champions from her own school?" said Madame Maxime, speaking up for the first time.

"Grace would only be in the centre of the maze with the cup. Like she said, she wouldn't actually be taking part in the task itself," said Bagman, waving off her concerns.

Grace opened her mouth to argue but from behind Bagman, she could see Dumbledore shaking his head subtly and she shut her mouth. _Well, she was getting what she wanted_, she thought. _She was getting to go into the maze, did it really matter what she was doing once she was in there?_ McGonagall, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime still did not look happy about the idea but Fudge was all for it and, as minister, it was his vote that counted.

...

That was how she had come to be in the centre of the maze on the day of the third task. She was wearing a long, red dress, her hair was up and she looked like she'd just come from some kind of award show. Her job was simple; it was a very basic 'stand there and look pretty' role. She would wait for the first champion to find her, hand over the cup and be in the pictures at the end. However, she had sneaked her wand in with her in case of emergencies. So far though, she hadn't had much to do.

She'd seen red sparks fly twice but the response from the teachers had been pretty quick. Maybe she had been overreacting, worrying about nothing. Sirius hadn't thought so. At the start of the week, the Daily Prophet had taken it upon themselves to announce Grace's involvement in the task and the award ceremony afterwards. Sirius, having read this but being unable to contact her directly for obvious reasons, had written angry letters to both Harry and Remus which had involved phrases such as "what were you thinking?" and "are you out of your mind?"

Grace, of course, had gone ahead and done it anyway but now she was wondering if she'd made the right decision. It was killing her not knowing what was going on. She nervously fiddled with her mother's necklace. It was the only thing she had of her mother but strangely, that hadn't really meant anything to her until her dad came back into her life. She supposed it had something to do with the fact that now she had better understanding of what she'd been missing.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps. _This was it_, she thought. _Showtime_. She got to her feet and picked up the cup. Both Cedric and Harry came into view, they were running towards her but Cedric was faster. He was going to get to her first but then, he wasn't counting on being attacked by a giant spider. It slammed into him, knocking him off balance. She could hear Harry yelling spells at it as she pulled out her own wand. She took aim but didn't say anything. She'd promised Dumbledore that she wouldn't intervene unless it was absolutely necessary. She needed to give Harry and Cedric the chance to deal with it themselves but that was easier said than done.

That's when the spider turned towards Harry. It picked him up but Harry cast the disarming spell which made it drop him. Once again Harry took aim but this time Cedric did too.

"Stupefy!"

Finally, the spider fell and Grace put her wand away, relieved.

"Harry! You alright? Did it fall on you?"

"No," Harry replied but his face said otherwise and he struggled to stand.

Cedric was still closer to Grace but he didn't move towards her. He looked between her and Harry, obviously torn.

"Take it then," encouraged Harry. "Go on."

Cedric still looked undecided. "Well, someone needs to come and take this cup from me," said Grace. "I didn't get all dressed up for nothing."

Cedric turned back to Harry. "You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck."

"That's not how this works. The person that reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not winning any races with this leg."

"No."

"Stop being noble."

Grace rolled her eyes. Between the two of them, this could go on forever. Knowing this wasn't quite what Dumbledore had meant when he had told her not to get involved, Grace felt it was time to intervene.

"Here's a crazy idea," she said and both boys turned to look at her almost as though they'd forgotten she was there. "Why don't you both take the cup? You've both gotten this far and it's still a Hogwart's victory isn't it?"

The boys looked back at each other.

"Come on," urged Grace. "I'm getting old over here."

Eventually they agreed and Cedric helped Harry over to Grace, who was starting to fidget impatiently.

"On three?" she said once they'd reached her. "One – two – three."

At exactly the same time, Cedric and Harry grabbed hold of the cup that Grace had been holding out to them. Instantly, Grace felt her feet leave the ground and her hands felt like they were glued to the cup. Some of her hair fell out of its clip and the wind whipped it around her face as colours swirled around her. Then, her feet slammed into the ground with enough force to break one of her shoes and she fell to the floor.

Slowly, she sat up and assessed the damage to her shoes while Cedric helped Harry to his feet. She groaned slightly, took off her shoes and got up herself, dusting off the dirt as best she could.

"Where are we?" Harry said.

Cedric shook his head. "Is this part of the task?"

Grace felt the both their eyes on her and knew the question was directed at her.

"Not unless this is the Ministry's idea of a joke," she answered as she looked around. Headstones surrounded them; they were in a graveyard. "Wands out."

She took a few steps forward but she hadn't gotten far before Harry spoke.

"Someone's coming."

Through the darkness, Grace could just about make out a small, hunched figure coming towards them. She glanced back at Harry and Cedric who looked just as confused as she felt.

As the figure drew closer, Grace realised that whoever it was, was holding something. It looked like it could be a baby. Not wanting to scare them, Grace put her wand away and took another few steps closer_. Maybe they were lost too, _she thought.

"Hello," she said as kindly as she could.

The figure didn't reply and for a minute, they all just looked at each other, then-

"Kill the spare."

Grace realised what was going to happen almost a second before it did.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Noooo!" screamed Grace and, wand forgotten, she dived at Cedric. The flash of green light consumed her and then she felt – nothing. She couldn't feel her body and her mind was blank. Distantly she could hear someone speaking but the words made no sense to her. She didn't know how long it took for the feelings to come back to her but as soon as they did, she wished they hadn't. Pain. Everything _hurt_. Her whole body was in agony.

When she opened her eyes, the world seemed to be the wrong way round. She had felt something pressed against her back and had assumed she was lying on the floor but she wasn't.

She had been tied to a headstone next to harry and they weren't alone. In front of them were Death Eaters but it was the person in the middle of them that was the most frightening of all. It was Lord Voldemort.

"...and here he is, the boy you all believed had been my downfall."

He moved forward slowly. "Wormtail, untie the girl."

Somebody moved in the edge of her vision and Wormtail came into view. It was a mark of how out of it she really was because she couldn't even find the strength to recall the hatred she had for that man. As soon as the binds were gone, she fell straight to the floor.

"She's a pretty one, isn't it?" she heard Voldemort say from somewhere above her. She certainly didn't feel pretty. Her dress was torn, her hair was falling into her eyes and she must have been dirty from all the time she'd spent on the floor. "Grace, isn't it?"

"Leave her alone!" yelled harry.

Voldemort chuckled quietly. "Crucio."

If she thought she was in pain before, it was nothing compared to this. Her body was screaming at her. It was like every inch of her was on fire but as suddenly as it started, it stopped and she was left gasping for breath.

"You will learn respect for me Harry," said Voldemort. "Even if I have to kill Grace here, to get it." He addressed the Death Eaters. "You see how foolish it was to suppose this boy could ever have been stronger than me. With a flick of his wand, Grace was sent flying away from them. She landed near a body.

"And I'm going to prove my power by killing him, here and now."

Grace rolled over and saw the back of what was unmistakably Cedric's head.

"I will give him his chance."

She crawled over to him.

"He will be allowed to fight and you will be left in no doubt which of us is stronger."

But Grace heard no more, she reached Cedric and realised what must have happened. Cedric was dead. She rolled him over so that he was lying on his back and looked into his now lifeless eyes. Tears filled her own eyes but at that moment, the effort it had taken to crawl over to him and move him hit her and pulled her into darkness.

**I don't know if anyone noticed but I bent the rules slightly in this chapter which I don't usually do but I couldn't think of any other way to do it, in the book I think it's the first person to touch the Cup that gets apparated to the graveyard but I thought it would be kinda unlikely that all three of them would touch it at the exact same time so I changed it to it happening just when harry touches it. It doesn't really make that much of a difference but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone got confused :-) Anyways please review and the next chapter will be up soon!**


	25. The Aftermath

**Here's the next chapter, hope you all like it and don't forget to review because you know it makes my day :-)**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own harry potter or anything in the harry potter world**

**Chapter 25 – The Aftermath**

After that, Grace drifted in and out of consciousness. She could hear jeering and then she felt someone holding onto her, followed by the buzz of a lot of people talking at once. When she finally came to, she saw Dumbledore standing over her. He noticed she was awake within seconds and bent over her.

"Grace? Are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded dumbly even though she didn't feel even remotely in the realm of 'alright'. He seemed to understand, though, and said something quietly to another man, a man who appeared to be much bigger than was really necessary.

The next thing Grace knew, she was being lifted up and carried through the school while a voice that she now recognised as Hagrids' was saying things like "it's okay" and "you're safe now."

When he reached his destination, he put her down gently on something soft and left, closing the door behind him. Grace closed her eyes. She'd never felt so tired before. She was just considering sleep as a very appealing option (maybe she'd wake up and find out it had all been a dream) when a voice pulled her back.

"Gracie?"

Grace opened her eyes and, for a second, thought that she really had fallen asleep. Kneeling by her side, his pale face and ragged hair just inches from her own, was Sirius.

"Daddy?"

Sirius sat beside her and pulled her as carefully as he could onto his lap. He held her close as though his arms alone would protect her from all the evil on the world.

"What happened?" he asked.

Grace tried to tell him but the words kept getting stuck in her throat and the sentences were jumbled and confused. Eventually Sirius stopped her and started muttering the same kind of things Hagrid had said. She noticed that everyone kept telling her that _she_ was safe; nobody mentioned anything about Harry or the fact that Cedric was certainly not safe.

All of a sudden the door opened and Harry and Dumbledore walked in.

"Harry." Her voice sounded hoarse but he heard her and came over to sit next to her and Sirius. No more words past between them, but a whole world of understanding did. Grace reached out for his hand and he squeezed it back in response.

Sirius and Dumbledore started talking, something about Moody not being Moody and a house elf. Grace leaned her head against her dad's chest; she was beginning to wonder if anything would ever make sense again.

Then Dumbledore turned to Harry and Grace. "I need to know what happened after you touched the port key in the maze."

Harry looked at Grace who shook her head. There weren't words to describe what it had been like in that graveyard and even if there were, living through it once had been painful enough. She hadn't been able to explain it to Sirius, somehow she didn't think she'd be able to describe it any better to Dumbledore. Then, Sirius spoke up.

"We can leave that 'til morning can't we Dumbledore?" he said.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore didn't see it that way and so, Harry started re-telling the night's events. Grace knew what it cost him to tell them everything, it hurt just listening to it, but she did listen to it all, paying careful attention to the parts she had missed. Harry only paused once in his story. It was one of the bits she'd been awake for. He described how Wormtail had given the order to kill Cedric.

"It looked like spell had hit you too," he said to her. "I thought you were dead..."

Grace thought back. She remembered all that green light and that feeling; she had felt detached from her own body and she had thought she'd died as well. "Must've missed me..." she replied doubtfully.

Everyone seemed to accept that as an answer and Harry ploughed on with his story. Once he had finished, Dumbledore finally decided it was time to go to the Hospital Wing. Harry helped Grace along and Sirius (back in dog form) trotted along beside them, looking nervously up at them every few feet. He was clearly not happy about not being able to help. Dumbledore strode along in front and he was the first to reach the Hospital Wing. So he was the first to meet a very frantic Mrs Weasley, Bill, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George all grouped around a very harassed-looking madam Promfrey. Upon his arrival, they all turned to him eager for some information but stopped short when they caught sight of Harry, Grace and a massive black dog.

Dumbledore told them all basically to back off and they all stayed quiet. Fred was the first to move. He crossed the room quickly and gently took Grace off Harry's hands, leading her to a bed.

"I thought..." he started but he didn't seem able to finish the sentence. And she didn't need him to.

"I'm okay," she said quietly. "All things considered."

Dumbledore waited until both Harry and Grace were settled before he left. Sirius had just positioned himself between both the beds when Madam Promfrey came in with some potion. While Harry took his gratefully, Grace refused.

"Don't want it," she said stubbornly. "I don't want to sleep."

The dog whined beside her but she ignored him.

"Grace, don't you think that it might be a good idea-" Mrs Weasley said.

"Mum, didn't you hear her? She said she doesn't want it," defended Fred. "Now everyone just leave her alone."

Everyone was silent after that, even Sirius stopped making noises and Grace just sat in the bed, staring off into space. She knew everyone was watching her, but she didn't care. All she could think about was where Cedric's body was now and how on earth she had survived the night. No matter what she said before, she didn't believe that spell had missed her. So why wasn't she dead like Cedric?

Harry had not been asleep long when loud voices could be heard getting closer. Fudge, McGonagall and Snape burst into the room, shortly followed by Dumbledore.

"You are – err – prepared to take Harry's word on this, are you Dumbledore?" said Fudge sceptically.

Sirius growled and Grace felt that all too familiar flare of temper rage up inside her.

"Certainly I believe Harry," replied Dumbledore.

From that moment on, every word Fudge said infuriated Grace more and more. Anger gave her something to hold on to it seemed because now her mind was no longer confused.

"For heaven's sake Dumbledore – the boy was full of some crackpot story at the end of last year too – his tales are getting taller, and you're still swallowing them – the boy can talk to snakes, Dumbledore, and you still think he's trustworthy?" said Fudge.

"And what about me?" said Grace loudly. "I have the same the story as Harry, don't you believe me?"

"Miss Blackseyer, you have lied and cheated your way through life and now you expect me to just believe you? I have forgiven you so far – put it all down to circumstance – but not anymore!"

"What about Cedric?" yelled Grace, while Sirius looked about ready to tear Fudge's leg off.

"What happened to that boy was tragic but-"

"Tragic? Try horrible, awful. He was murdered!"

"Now you listen to me, young lady-"

"I will not-"

"Fudge if you are determined to stay blind to the situation at hand," said Dumbledore breaking up the argument. "Then we have reached a parting of the ways. You must act as you see fit. And I – I shall act as I see fit."

"Now, see here," Fudge said, waving a threatening finger. "I've given you free rein, always. But if you're going to work against me-"

"The only one against whom I intend to work," said Dumbledore, "Is Lord Voldemort."

Fudge did not seem able to think of a response to that because he mouthed wordlessly for a few minutes and then –

"I've heard enough! I will be in touch, Dumbledore, to discuss the running of this school but now I must return to the Ministry." With that he dropped Harry's winnings onto his bed and left.

"There is work to be done," said Dumbledore. He gave Bill, McGonagall and Madam Promfrey jobs to do and only when they left did he speak again.

"And now it is time for two of our number to recognise each other for what they are. Sirius... if you could resume your usual form."

Sirius changed back into a man and Mrs Weasley screamed but it wasn't Mrs Weasley that Grace was watching. Snape glared at him with a mingled expression of fury and horror.

"Him!" he snarled. "What is he doing here?"

Grace leaned forward, readying herself for a fight to break out at any moment.

"He is here at my invitation," said Dumbledore looking between them. "As are you, Severus. I trust you both. It is time for you to lay aside your old differences, and trust each other."

Nobody moved, but if looks could kill...

"I will settle, in the short term, for a lack of open hostility. You will shake hands. You are on the same side now."

Sirius and Snape must have only touched each other for all of two seconds but Dumbledore moved on just as quickly.

"That will do. Now I have work for both of you. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher – the old crowd."

"What?" said Grace looking between Dumbledore and Sirius. "Wait, no. Don't go."

"Gracie," Sirius said. He took her face in between his hands and kissed her forehead. "We will see each other again, very soon. I promise, okay?"

Grace nodded but Harry wasn't convinced.

"But-" he started to argue.

"Harry, I must do what I can, you understand, don't you?"

"Yeah... yeah, of course."

Sirius looked at both of them once more, nodded to Dumbledore, then transformed back into a dog and ran the length of the room. "Severus, you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready...? Then, good luck."

With that Snape also left them, followed not long after by Dumbledore who said that he had to go see the Diggorys.

"I changed my mind," said Grace breaking the silence that followed. "I want that sleeping potion now."

**Next chapter should be up soon, already written it I just need to type it up so it shouldn't be long... in theory.**


	26. Keeps Getting Better

**This chapter really didn't take me long to write at all and for some reason (maybe because it has both Remus and Sirius in it) I really enjoyed writing it too so I hope you lot like it as much as I did :-) Oh and before I forget, I know Grace starts this chapter as being a little whiney (she has just lost one of her friends) but you have to bear with her until the end where she gets better :-D**

**Disclaimer: I still dont Harry Potter :-( **

**Chapter 26 – Keeps Getting Better**

When term finally ended and the train rolled into the station, Grace said a very half-hearted goodbye to her friends and heaved her trunk onto the platform where she was greeted by Remus. As soon as he saw her, he made a beeline for her and wrapped her in a hug. Grace was so surprised to even see him here that she didn't hug him back. Instead, she stood there letting him try to comfort her until his hugging started to hurt her still sore body.

"Ow," she said under her breath.

Remus heard her. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"What are you doing here, Remus?"

"Come on," he said pretending not to hear her and taking her trunk out of her hands.

He led her out of the station and then down another street to a very old looking car. He told her that he'd hired it for the weekend as he loaded the trunk into the back and got in.

"I thought we could go out for dinner but we could stay in too, of course, if that's what you want-"

"Remus, what are you doing here?" she asked again. She didn't sound like herself; she sounded like a robot and she knew Remus heard it too because she could feel him studying her out of the corner of his eye. She wondered what he saw there but it probably wasn't good.

"You're friend, Fred Weasley, wrote to me. He wanted to make sure someone was there for you when you got off the train and I have to say I'm glad he did."

"Boyfriend," she corrected.

"Sorry?"

"Fred's my boyfriend," she said, still in that emotionless robot-looking voice. She felt as though the last few weeks and just drained her of all feeling and now there was nothing left.

"He sounded concerned about you," said Remus.

Grace didn't reply.

"Grace, do want to talk?"

"No, I don't."

"I really think you'd feel better if you'd just-"

"I said no," snapped Grace and she instantly felt guilty. "Sorry, it's just... I don't even remember that much... and I don't want to talk about it."

Remus nodded.

"So are we eating in or going out?" he said in a vague attempt to change the subject.

"Can we just go home, please?"

"Of course we can."

Suddenly a thought occurred to her.

"Remus?"

"Yes?" he said cautiously.

"Before he left, Dumbledore asked Dad to come and talk to you. Did he find you?"

Remus hesitated before answering. "Yes – yes he did."

"So where is he now?"

"He had to go, Grace," Remus replied gently and she felt her heart sink a little. "But," he continued, "If all goes to plan, we should be able to go and meet up with him soon."

'Soon' ended up being about a week. A week in which Grace barely ate and didn't reply to any of her letters (except for the ones from Fred and that was only because he threatened to come and bang her door down if she didn't answer). She knew Remus was watching her and she also knew he was worried but she couldn't bring herself to ease his mind; in fact she couldn't bring herself to do much.

Finally, Remus told her to pack up some stuff and Grace did as she was told. Remus didn't mess around with hiring cars this time and they used side-along apparition.

"Hello, Miss Blackseyer, Remus."

Grace turned around to find Dumbledore standing there as though he had been waiting for them. He didn't seem to fit in with this dark, dirty little street and, in normal circumstances, Grace would have commented on it but this time she didn't. Dumbledore seemed to notice the lack of remarks because he glanced briefly at Lupin before he continued.

"Right this way."

He led them to the middle of the street and after telling them both the address, a very grubby house appeared. The minute they entered, Grace saw what might have been the only thing to make her feel any better: Sirius.

Evidently, he had been waiting for them because he jumped up from his seat on the stairs and rushed over to them.

"Shall we go down to the kitchen, Sirius?" said Dumbledore in a slightly hushed voice.

Sirius nodded. "Come on," he muttered.

They left all the luggage by the stairs and Sirius led the way to the kitchen.

"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" asked Sirius when the kitchen door had closed behind them. He was looking at Grace but it was Dumbledore who answered.

"I think a pot of tea would go down nicely," he said.

Nobody spoke again until they all had a large mug of tea in front of them and Sirius had sat down next to Grace.

"Miss Blackseyer-"

"Can you stop calling me 'Miss Blackseyer' please? It's making me feel like I've done something wrong."

Dumbledore regarded her for a minute and then he started again.

"You are right, my apologies," he said. "Grace, we need to talk."

She didn't say anything so he continued.

"This house is your father's. When his mother died, he inherited it as the next heir and with the protection it already has plus a few added precautions, we plan to use it as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. I will let Sirius and Remus explain to you what the Order is as I have something else I'd like to discuss with you. For the rest of the summer, I would like you to stay inside this house and when Harry arrives, I will ask the same of him. It is for your own safety and I trust you will understand that. I also trust that you realise the importance of secrecy in this matter. You are not to tell anyone where you are or who you are with and for now, that includes Harry."

While Grace had been silent throughout this speech, she looked up with narrowed eyes at the mention of Harry.

"Why can't I tell Harry?" she asked. "If he's coming here anyway, why does it matter?"

"Grace, it is for your protection as much as it is for Harry's," he replied calmly. "Which lead me to my next topic. I want to talk about what happened that night."

"I don't."

"Grace, everyone's worried about you. You know that it wasn't your fault."

"I know, I'm not the one that did the curse, am I?"

"There was nothing you could have done-"

"No, there was _everything_ I could have done."

"Nobody could have foreseen what Voldemort was planning."

"Don't give me that," spat Grace. "Don't you dare. We all knew he was up to something and that should have been enough to pull Harry from the tournament but you couldn't do that, could you? If Harry hadn't been there-"

"Voldemort would have found another way to get to him," said Dumbledore patiently.

"And Cedric would still be alive."

"But Harry might not be," he said. "Now I know you're upset and angry and what happened to Cedric was a terrible thing. But blaming yourself or me will not change what has happened." He stood up. "I'm sorry but I have to go or I will be late for a meeting with Fudge." He strode over to the door but then he stopped."Grace, I think it would be best if, once you have returned to school, we continued our weekly sessions. Sirius, Remus, I will be in touch soon." Then he left, leaving them in silence.

"Grace?" said Sirius tentatively after a while.

"I'd like to go to bed, if you don't mind," she said curtly.

Sirius and Remus exchanged a look and Sirius stood up. "Right then... this way."

He led her up out of the kitchen, back through the hall and up two flights of stairs.

"I thought you could have this room," he said as he stopped in front of one of the doors. He sounded almost nervous. "At least until the others get here and then you might have to share. It's... erm... it's not much..."

"No, its fine," she replied automatically.

It was a small room but someone (Sirius most likely) had made an obvious attempt to brighten it up. The bed sheets and curtains were a matching set, white with pink and blue flowers on them, and a large wardrobe had been placed in the corner. Judging by what she had seen of the rest of the house so far, this room was by far the cleanest too. And this was where she spent all of her time despite how hard Sirius tried to get her to come out.

He tried bribery ("why don't you come downstairs? Remus is making us some tea..."), he tried persuasion ("Gracie, aren't you getting sick of being in that room?"), and finally he tried to threaten her ("Grace Maria Black! If you don't you come out of that room this instant...").

Needless to say, that last one didn't go down too well.

"You'll what?" she said, banging open the door and glaring at him.

Sirius looked slightly taken aback that she'd even come out but he recovered quickly. "Hey, I've tried to be patient but you can't stay in there forever-"

"You can't tell me what I can and can't do!"

"I am your father-"

"I'm sorry but you haven't been here long enough to play the 'dad card' yet," she said harshly.

For a minute Sirius just stared at her as if she'd slapped him but he shook it off well. "Look, I get that you're going through a hard time right now-"

"No, you don't get it, so don't stand there acting like you do."

Sirius opened his mouth to answer but then closed it, shook his head and walked away. She heard him go all the way up the stairs and then jumped as he slammed a door. As soon as the sound had stopped echoing around the house, Grace sank to her knees still in the doorway to her room. She'd gone too far, she'd known it even as she was saying the words and yet she hadn't stopped.

"What-" started Remus as he came up the stairs to investigate the noise but then he saw Grace on the floor. "Oh, Grace..." he hurried over and got her to sit on the bed.

"I thought it would be better," she said in between sobs.

"You thought what would be better?" he asked.

"I thought that if I ever got to live with my dad... I don't know," she tried to explain. "I guess I thought everything would be better, I thought he would be able to _make_ everything better, but he can't, can he?"

She looked at Remus with tears still in her eyes.

"Listen to me, Grace. The last time your father had to be a parent, you were just a baby. This – this is hard for him but he's trying and I think you know that. No, he can't make everything magically better but he is willing to try to make things easier for you...if you'll let him." Remus sighed. "And for the record, Sirius knows what it's like to lose a friend. James Potter was his best friend and don't forget he had to deal with losing him while being accused of murder."

Now Grace felt awful. Not only had she lashed out at Sirius, she had also crossed a line that she didn't think she deserved to be forgiven for.

The next morning, Grace woke up early and went downstairs to make breakfast. She dusted off an ancient-looking tray and carried it upstairs. She reached the top floor, where she assumed his bedroom was and sure enough, there was a door at the end with the name 'Sirius' marked on it. Shifting the weight of the tray onto one arm, grace knocked gently on the door.

At first there was no answer but then –

"Come in."

Grace opened the door and found Sirius, still in the clothes he'd worn when she'd argued with him, sat on the bed.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, lifting up the tray stupidly. "Brought you breakfast."

"Erm, thanks," he replied, clearly confused.

She went over and handed it to him.

"You didn't need to do this," he said gruffly.

"I know, I just..."

He looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath before letting out everything that was on her mind without pausing and with her eyes fixed on the breakfast tray.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said those things, I didn't mean any of it, I swear. It's just I went into that maze thinking that I'd be able to help and I didn't. I couldn't and I've never felt so helpless before. And I'm scared because there was nothing I could do and I don't think that killing curse missed me either. I know it sounds crazy but I felt it so why did it kill Cedric and not me? I mean-"

"Hey, hey," said Sirius, putting the breakfast to one side and pulling her into a hug. "SShhh, it's okay," he muttered.

"I'm sorry," Grace said again.

"It's okay."

"I'm going to be better," she promised.

"I'd like to see that," he joked.

"Shut up and eat your breakfast."

**So... what do you think? I haven't written the next chapter yet but I promise I'll get right on it ;-)**


	27. Nothing Personal

**I know it's been forever and I'm sorry because really there's no excuse. But I'm back now so let me know what you think of this chapter and if you're still interested in this story. Also I'm sorry if there's any mistakes, a few of the keys on the keyboard aren't working and I only realised about half way through, I've tried to fix it but I may have missed something so you'll have to bear with me.**

**Chapter 27 – Nothing Personal**

The next few days went very well for Sirius and Grace. They talked for hours, sometimes swapping stories and other times they just talked for the sake of talking. They were interrupted every now and then by members of the Order of the Phoenix (which Sirius and filled her in on by now). They stopped mostly to deliver news or leave messages but nobody stayed very long until the Weasleys and Hermione arrived.

Grace was lying on her bed trying to write a new song. It wasn't going well and she was just considering giving up on it when she heard a loud noise at the foot of her bed.

_Crack_.

"Fred?" she said in disbelief before laughing and jumping on him. Luckily he caught her and held her for a few minutes before setting her gently back on her feet.

"Someone's in a better mood," Fred joked.

"And someone passed their Apparation test without telling me," replied Grace, playfully smacking his arm.

"I thought it would be more fun to surprise you," he said and then he frowned. "I also thought you'd scream or at least jump," he added.

Grace laughed. "Guess I don't scare that easy."

"I could always just try harder."

There was a knock at the door. "Grace?" Remus' voice called through the door. "Come down and say hello to everyone, won't you?"

"Be there in a minute," Grace called back, before turning her attention back to Fred.

"Teach me."

"What?"

"Teach me how to apparate."

"Grace, no. That is not a good idea-"

"Come on, I've always wanted to learn it."

"What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing's going to go wrong."

"Grace, no." He shook his head firmly.

"Please?"

"No," but he didn't sound so sure anymore.

"For me?"

Fred rolled his eyes but he caved. "You know I hate it when you do that, right?"

Grace snaked her arms around his neck again. "I know but why would I stop when it works so well?"

...

Two weeks passed quickly to Grace. When she wasn't helping clean the house or having what Sirius called 'quality time with the old man,' she was having secret apparition lessons with Fred; which weren't going as quickly as she had hoped.

"You're doing really well Grace," said Fred soothingly.

"If I was doing really well, I would have apparated by now," she replied stubbornly.

"It usually takes people a little bit longer than just a couple of weeks to learn how to do it."

"And that's fine but I haven't even _moved_ yet."

"You do know that the whole point of apparating is _not_ to move, don't you?"

"Fred, if I were you, I would stop talking now."

Fred opened his mouth to reply but before he could get any words out, Ginny came bursting in.

"Grace – Harry's been attacked!"

Grace's entire body went numb.

"What?"

"We were listening to the Order downstairs and we heard Sirius say-"

Grace had left the room and was sprinting down the stairs before Ginny could finish. She hardly noticed Fred telling her to wait from somewhere behind her or passing Ron, Hermione and George grouped together on the landing all holding flesh coloured pieces of string to their ears. She was down the stairs and at the kitchen door before any of them could stop her.

Throwing open the door, Grace stormed in on what looked like an emergency Order meeting with the others in her wake. As well as Sirius, Remus, Bill and Mrs Weasley, there was also Tonks, Moody and Mundungus Fletcher all huddled around the table.

"Grace?" said Sirius, standing up. She focused in on him.

"What's happened?" she demanded.

"Grace," said Sirius, taking a few steps towards her, "You really shouldn't be-"

"What has happened?" Her eyes never left his face but she heard Remus sigh and say quietly, "she's going to find out soon anyway, Sirius."

"Fine," said Sirius reluctantly. "But she isn't going to take this well."

"Tell me now," she said through gritted teeth.

"Harry was attacked by two Dementors earlier tonight," explained Sirius. "He isn't hurt," he added hurriedly seeing the look on Grace's face.

"What?" she exclaimed. "How?"

"We think You-Know-Who is behind it," said Moody. "Not that it matters."

"What do you mean?"

"Now nothing's certain yet," Mrs Weasley interrupted. "There's no need to get worked up-"

Grace rounded on Sirius again. "Dad, what aren't you telling me?"

Sirius looked uneasily at Remus before he answered.

"Well... there's talk of... the Ministry are talking about expelling Harry.

Gasps of shock and outrage came from behind Grace, reminding her for the first time that the others had followed her.

"_Why_?"

"They're saying that he used underage magic in front of a muggle."

"But-"

"I know, Grace, I know," said Sirius before she could argue. "Dumbledore's gone to the Ministry to smooth things over now and with any luck, he'll be able to sort everything out."

However Harry Potter was not exactly known for having the best luck in the world and the most Dumbledore could do was get him a hearing at the Ministry. This was something that Grace was pleased about.

"It's pointless, that's what it is," she whispered. The kids had all been sent to bed by Mrs Weasley so naturally they had gathered in Grace's room to talk. "I mean he hasn't done anything wrong."

"No he hasn't," Hermione agreed. "But Fudge will just be using this as another way to discredit Harry."

"But it wasn't mentioned in the Daily Prophet," argued Ginny.

"Yeah," said Ron. "You'd think it would be all over the front page if that's what they were up to."

"They could be biding their time," suggested George.

"Waiting until Harry gets expelled. If he gets expelled," Fred added quickly seeing the look of outrage on Grace's face.

"They wouldn't expel Harry, would they?" asked Ginny.

"Not if they know what's good for them," muttered Grace.

"They can't if they stick to their own rules," said Hermione. "There's no case against him."

"Grace, you've had a Ministry hearing before," said George. "What was it like? Did they play fair with you?"

"Most of the time yeah they did," admitted Grace. "But things are a whole lot worse for Harry. Fudge really wants him expelled, to him, it'll be like proving he's right instead of Dumbledore."

Silence followed that statement until finally, Hermione yawned and they decided that it really was time for bed. Grace lied back listening to the others settle down just as Mrs Weasley climbed the stairs, pausing at each floor to check that they were all asleep.

...

Grace was lying on Fred's bed watching the twins perfect their Skiving Snackboxes when she heard a familiar voice.

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL!"

Grace looked at the boys.

"Was that-" she began.

"WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE?WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

Grace was out of the door and down the stairs faster than the boys could call her back but they still beat her down there. She resolved to try harder at apparating before she caught what Harry was yelling at Ron and Hermione now.

"WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!" Harry shouted.

"Harry, it may have escaped your notice but I was there that night too," she said, reminding herself that Harry must be frustrated and making a conscious effort to stay calm.

"BUT YOU'VE BEEN HERE! I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER-" Harry rounded on Grace.

"Hey! That's enough," said Fred, stepping in before Grace could respond.

Harry calmed down a b it after that but Grace could tell that the conversation wasn't over. She watched him as they talked about the Order. When Mrs Weasley came to tell them it was time for dinner, Grace was relieved but it didn't last for long.

"You know I'm surprised at you," said Sirius, turning to Harry. "I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The atmosphere changed dramatically; every single person in the room tensed.

"Hang on!" said George loudly. "How come Harry gets his questions answered?"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," replied Sirius calmly, "That's your parent's decision. Harry, on the other hand-"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry," said Mrs Weasley sharply. "Just because you've decided to tell your daughter every little detail-"

"Can we leave me out of this please?" intervened Grace but it was too late. Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and even Harry all whipped round to look at Grace.

"You know everything?" asked Fred.

"Not everything, no-"

"And you didn't tell me?" The hurt in his voice was undeniable.

"Fred, it wasn't like that and I don't know _every little detail_-"

"You shouldn't know any of it!" said Mrs Weasley. "You're too young and you're father should've realised that!"

"Don't tell me how to raise my daughter," growled Sirius.

"And as for Harry," continued Mrs Weasley. "Dumbledore specifically said not to tell him more than he _needs to know_. He's only fifteen and-"

"And he's dealt with as much as most in the Order. More than some."

The argument went on, getting more personal with every swipe but Grace's attention was on Fred who was watching his mother and her father. Whether he was doing it intentionally or not, he never quite met her eyes. It wasn't until the argument reached a new low that Grace drew her gaze away from him.

"He's not your son," said Sirius.

"He's as good as," said Mrs Weasley fiercely. "Who else has he got?"

"He's got me!"

"Yes, the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after your own daughter, let alone Harry, while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

Sirius started to rise from his chair, but Grace didn't stick around to hear his reply. She did not need Mrs Weasley or anybody else reminding her of the time her of the time her dad wasn't there for her.

"Are you both happy now?" she heard Remus say.

Grace continued up the stairs until she reached the room where Buckbeak was staying and closed the door firmly behind her.

Nobody came after her this time and after a while, she began to get lonely. She thought about sneaking into Fred's room but she wasn't sure she'd be welcome there. Instead she decided to go down to the kitchen for a drink, thinking that everyone would have gone to bed by now. However, as she got closer, she heard voices.

"You think she's right, don't you?" She recognised Sirius' voice.

"I just think you told her for the wrong reasons," replied Remus.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," said Remus, it sounded like he was choosing his words very carefully. "Do you think there's a possibility that you told her about the Order to make up for the time you weren't there?"

"I told her so that she knew what was going on. The stuff she's been through...doesn't she deserve to know?"

"I'm not arguing with you, Sirius. Grace is your daughter and it's your decision what you tell her. But she has been through a lot and I think you have to remember, it doesn't matter how much she acts like an adult, she's still only fifteen."

"I know," sighed Sirius. There was a pause and Grace readied herself to back up the stairs as quietly as possible. She didn't want them to know she'd been listening but then Sirius started talking again and Grace couldn't help herself, she crept closer to the door.

"Has she said anything to you about what her life was like before? I mean, I know she stayed with the Malfoys for a while..."

"No," answered Remus. "From her reaction when she thought she'd have to go back there though, I think we can assume they didn't treat her well."

"I hate this," said Sirius. "I hate the fact that I wasn't there for her, that I didn't protect her. I hate the thought of people hurting her and even now, not being able to do anything about it. But more than anything, I hate not knowing, I can't stand it."

"You can't push her, Sirius. If you try to force her to tell you-"

"I know," Sirius sighed again.

Grace decided that it was time to sneak back to her bed before she was caught. She felt horrible. She never talked about her past, it was nothing personal, she just didn't like doing it. What was the point if it was only going to upset people?

Feeling possibly worse than ever, Grace paused outside her room. Hermione and Ginny were most likely asleep and she didn't want to wake them especially when they'd probably ask her a lot of questions that she didn't feel like answering. Besides, with so much going on in her head, she doubted she'd be able to sleep. So she settled on biting the bullet and went instead to the room Fred and George were staying in.

She opened the door and tip-toed over to the mound of covers that was her boyfriend.

"Fred?" she whispered, giving him a little shake.

He rolled over and peered at her sleepily through one eye. She waited patiently for him to recognise her.

"Grace!"

"Ssshh!" They both glanced over at George and sighed as he murmured something and slept on.

"Where've you been?" he said quietly.

"Fred, I'm sorry-" But he didn't let her finish.

"It's okay Grace, I get why you didn't tell us. Sirius told us that he made you promise not to after you left. It's just that this isn't exactly the first time you've kept something this big from me. You knew for a whole year that your dad was innocent before you told me and then there was-"

"You're right and I promise that this is the last time."

"I really think that as your boyfriend I should at least get – wait, what?" Fred said having finally let her words sink in.

"No more secrets," said Grace.

"Good," said Fred still looking a bit confused with her agreeing so easily. "But in the interest of honesty, I have to say I thought this conversation would go a lot differently."

"Don't complain," advised Grace. "You are getting your way after all."

Fred mimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key before shuffling over to give Grace enough space to squeeze in next to him.


End file.
